GOP senator: 'We should explore' not paying US debt to punish China

[turbinetree]

Source: American Independent

By Josh Israel -April 30, 2020 6:05 PM

Marsha Blackburn is following the GOP's playbook in blaming China for the coronavirus.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) suggested on Thursday that the United States should consider defaulting on its debt to China as punishment for the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a Fox Business interview, host Stuart Varney said that she had suggested that the United States "not repay them the trillion dollars that we owe them." That, he said, would be "abrogating America's debt."

He added, "We've never done that before."

Blackburn responded by saying many Tennesseans are out of work and the pandemic has cost the U.S. economy trillions of dollars. She blamed China for the situation: "What China has done is a tremendous cost. Should we consider doing this? Yes, indeed," she said. "It is something we should explore as to how to hold them accountable."

Read more: https://americanindependent.com/marsha-blackburn-coronavirus-china-debt-default-senate-gop-covid-19/

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-snip-

My rant is posted on another thread............I had to take step back..........she has no clue about the economic fallout of this being thrown around............and her trying to deflect what her libertarian leaders have done and are doing is just amazing..........

[riversedge]

1. The article listed some severe consequences.................

Read more: https://americanindependent.com/marsha-blackburn-coronavirus-china-debt-default-senate-gop-covid-19/



.......Defaulting on the national debt would have serious and far-reaching consequences. The United States' credit rating is based on its record of reliably making payments on its debt. A lowered credit rating would likely mean higher interest rates for future borrowing.

Experts say the fallout from a debt default would include decimated global markets, frozen banking operations, the weakening of the value of the dollar, and the destruction of Americans' investments.

"The devastation to the United States would be so severe that it would take decades to recover from the Depression caused by a default and the attendant dumping of trillions of dollars of U.S. Treasury securities on the global financial markets," analyst Dick Bove of Rafferty Capital Markets wrote in a report to clients.

The suggestion is the latest in a series of anti-China Blackburn has made.

On April 8, she tweeted that China should voluntarily "waive our debt" because of the coronavirus..................

[turbinetree]

3. She knows exactly what she is doing and she is dangerous, this country will pay a heavy price if

this is being talked about in her circle of nuts...........they just don't care, deflection of what is happening is now the game, and they are playing a deadly game..............

[no_hypocrisy]

8. Also:

1. Even Saudi Arabia wouldn't lend to the U.S. after a default on the China debt.

2. This event might be the catalyst that propels the world into using any other currency but the U.S. Dollar. Petro-Dollars, the Chinese Yuan, whatever. It just won't be the U.S. Dollar anymore.

3. A Depression from which we'll never climb out of.

4. The Pentagon will be dependent upon only what we can afford to pay it.

[dalton99a]

27. Your point #4 is important: It costs money to threaten people and conduct a war.

[Stuart G]

33. This lady is SO STUPID...that she makes TRUMP LOOK SMART...i kid you not...

.......................

[dawg day]

2. Well, that is the Trump way-- just don't pay

And they know there's no price to be paid, because it will be the Democratic president who has to deal with the fallout come January.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

4. Nobody would lend to the US. Great way to torpedo yourself below the waterline. . . . nt

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Great way to sink the dollar and make China the world's banker

[cstanleytech]

6. A Republican from a state that gets more federal aid than it gives in taxes wants to not pay China

back its debt? Well.................now we know why so many red states are welfare queen states as they are being run by moronic Republicans.

[stopbush]

7. Because China will keep lending us $ if we default on what we already owe them.

[marble falls]

9. Really smart. A borrowing nation refusing to pay its debts. Do we really want to encourage the ...

our biggest international note buyer to stop carrying our debts?

[Stuart G]

34. This LADY/ SENATOR...defines these 2 words...."STUPID & IGNORANT"

[Progressive Jones]

37. This is the mentality among deadbeats. The Red States are deadbeats and takers, not makers. nt

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

10. What a stupid idea.

Plus, China only owns about 5% of our debt. They're hardly the gorilla in the living room.

[AllaN01Bear]

11. hem

if a dem were to do this , ohm myy the flack.

[bucolic_frolic]

12. Absolutely wreckless idea that would collapse US Dollar and trade we depend on

China would DUMP our US Govt Bonds. They would refuse to ship us goods we need to live and for our manufacture. We depend on parts, materials, partially finished goods, and much more. You want to collapse US finance and manufacture? Proceed, by all means.

[Progressive Jones]

38. The first reckless idea was getting so deep into trade with China to begin with.

I wish very bad things upon those who sold us out. Very horrific things.

[Scalded Nun]

13. She exemplifies the GOP

Does not have any understanding of the Constitution.

Always looking for someone to fuck over.

Oh yeah, and dumber than a box of rocks.

[cstanleytech]

23. "Oh yeah, and dumber than a box of rocks." I think a box of rocks might actually have

a higher IQ than her but not by much.
Of course compared to Clorox Donald she is a bright shiny penny.

[Stuart G]

35. i know this is hard to believe...but Clorox Donald is smarther than her..

Trump knows the show, he has been there & done that....

The United States of American cannot, will not declare bankruptcy...

[cstanleytech]

36. I disagree. Her statement was mild in comparison to suggesting

household cleaners injected or ingested could kill the coronavirus if someone was infected.

[progree]

41. Trump has also made statements in the past about using our leverage to negotiate lower rates

on the national debt.

[mpcamb]

14. We've got a Deadbeat Prez; do we want to be a Deadbeat Nation?

[pazzyanne]

15. Marsha Blackburn's only skill is looking "cute",

and she is not good at that. She certainly does not understand the world wide ramifications of what she proposed. That could start world war III in addition to sliding us into a world wide recession. Brilliant, I tell you - NOT.

[gibraltar72]

16. is this the part where we renegotiate our debt?

[Vinca]

17. Considering China is the place many of the items we require to exist come from, I'd say

that was a bad idea. In any case, how on earth does Dear Leader expect to have the greatest trade deal in the history of mankind if he stiffs China on the debt?

[progree]

18. 30% of U.S. national debt is owned by foreigners as of Q3 2019

https://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/series/FDHBFIN?cid=5
https://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/search?startMonth=9&startDay=30&startYear=2019&endMonth=&endDay=&endYear


The top 8 holders in February 2020 are (the link shows the top 40 or so):
http://ticdata.treasury.gov/Publish/mfh.txt

Japan 1268.3 B$ (that's 1.2683 Trillion $)
China, Mainland: 1092.3 B$
United Kingdom: 403.2 B$
Brazil 285.9
Ireland 282.7
Luxembourg 260.8
Hong Kong 249.8
Switzerland 243.7
(Keep in mind Americans also own a lot of foreign countries' debt)

[progree]

40. True. My point was that we can't stiff foreign owners of our debt because they are 30% of the

owners, and if we defaulted on a portion of the foreign-owned debt, the market value of the treasuries held by everyone and our pension funds etc. etc. would crash, and it would not any longer be considered the safest investment in the world. (And that stupid senator is not the first to suggest not meeting our debt obligations -- Trump did too back early on suggesting he would use our leverage to negotiate lower payments on the national debt).

And yes, the Social Security Trust Fund is a big holder of U.S. Treasury securities, about $2.9 trillion (their holdings are special issue non-marketable securities, so I don't think that Social Security would be negatively impacted, not directly anyway, although the U.S. general fund's ability to redeem those SSTF securities would be impacted -- beginning in 2021, yes, next year, Social Security will need to start redeeming these securities in order to pay promised benefits in full. The money to redeem these securities will come from the general fund, whose main source of revenue by far is income taxes).

https://www.ssa.gov/oact/TRSUM/index.html
https://www.ssa.gov/oact/ProgData/specialissues.html

Details on how the interest rates are set on SSTF securities. This is from 1999, but I don't think the basics have changed:
http://www.ssa.gov/OACT/NOTES/note142.html

[Raven]

19. This:

https://www.brookings.edu/testimonies/foreign-holdings-of-u-s-debt-is-our-economy-vulnerable/

[ashredux]

20. Idiots..idiots...idiots. Never, And I mean never default on any US debt!

She is plain ignorant...our debt is the BEST there is In the world. This would destroy our ability to issues new debt and will cost us untold amounts on future bond issues.

IDIOTS

[Stuart G]

31. ...The IDIOT ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA...(of which I am a member and a voting member too)

will not take in such a stupid lady. We have certain standards. This lady is way lower than us..She is without a doubt a member of the ....Very stupid dumb fuck idiot association of which we have nothing to do with

...

That organization has taken in Pence and other "dumb fuck idiots"..that I cannot name at this moment..

[samsingh]

21. as the great Governor of New york said

do it. i dare you to show you're not playing politices.

see what happens to the stock market then

[Stuart G]

32. Not paying the debt will make the "GREAT DEPRESSION of the 30s ...look like a "family picnic"

[Trenzalore]

22. That sounds like a plan to launch a worldwide depression

Probably a few wars as well.

[roamer65]

24. Great way to start a dollar crisis.

[flibbitygiblets]

25. Should I "explore" not paying taxes to punish tRump for f**king up the COVID response?

F-ing imbecile.

[dalton99a]

26. Financial armageddon and carnage, the likes of which the world has never seen before

[Stuart G]

28. This shows that when you think you have seen ............STUPID !!!!

then there is even ...........MORE STUPID THAN THE FIRST STUPID!!!!

This "stupid lady" can't figure out s**t..So she can't clean toilets ..

Yes, I think she can figure out how to wash dishes..OK?

[ramapo]

29. Insane

Simply insane

[SCantiGOP]

39. It has to be the Chinese's fault

Otherwise, it’s the republicans fault.

[Historic NY]

42. Well they hold 1.1 trillion of our debt...

would that be smart, I'm sure they could sink the dollar, besides we get most of our crap from them. Donald is so determined to raise the tariffs on Chinese goods coming here that its not the Chinese paying its the taxpayer, in the rising cost of items.