The news reports what the Democrats and Republicans are doing, or not doing. But increasingly, the most important party at the negotiating table is beginning to be heard.

From today's Wall Street Journal...

...Treasury officials say the government will not have enough cash to pay all its bills after Aug. 2 if the debt cap is not increased. And they say leaders need to reach an agreement by the end of next week to get legislation enacted before that date.

Washington's paralysis is stoking concern on Wall Street and around the world over whether policy makers will act soon and avoid defaulting on financial obligations, including debt payments. Even before a formal credit default, the stalemate risks a possible downgrade of U.S. government debt.

For China, which has the world's largest pile of foreign exchange at $3 trillion—an estimated two-thirds of it in dollars—the inability to resolve the debt-ceiling dispute, and the longer-term deficit problem, is especially worrisome.

China has long talked of diversifying, and officials have said in the past year that Beijing has bought more European debt.

"We hope the U.S. government adopts responsible policies to protect the interests of investors," said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei, whose government held at least $1.152 trillion in Treasury securities as of April, and is the U.S. government's largest creditor....

I hope our stalemated partisan politicians are thinking about taking lessons in Mandarin. They're going to need it.

VK, On this I agree with you. China has amassed large amount of US debt, established a near monopoly on rare earth minerals, and boosted their spending on their military as a percent of GDP to above the United States even after considering the extra we are spending in Iraq and Afghanistan. The idea that China may be able to control our defense spending is frightening.

I was just reading that China is divesting itself of US securities. ON top of that the WTO has found their policies on rare earth minerals to be in violation of international law (whether or not that will have any effect is yet to be seen). As far as military spending, well, they're buying their first aircraft carrier - one the Russians were scrapping. Nothing to be alarmed about NOW - but certainly something to keep an eye on.

Have you no faith....It ain't going to happen!

WAKE UP AMERICA! Or is it too late? At least one generation has been indoctrinated with multi-culturalism, tolerance, entitlement, and peace at any cost....I can only hope that those brave men and women who chose to remove their children, in some way, from these self defeating doctrines, will live to see results of their hard fought stands. And HOPE that those children have taken on dignity, integrity, compassion and hard work, still hold them firmly as shields against peer pressure and politcal correctness and are willing to fight the good fight!~

We now add The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. What will be their budget, pay for top executives, how many new federal employees will they add? Will they need a new building? How many limos and aircraft will they need and what is their mission?

Tell us please, what they are going to do, that are not already responsibilities of existing Federal Agencies and Congressional Oversight Committees

From their website look at job openings and salaries at

http://www.consumerfinance.gov/jobs/

Yeah, we have a crisis in Washington. But I think it's more a problem of sanity than financial.

Originally Posted by rubicon

Have you no faith....It ain't going to happen!

Our son is home for a week after his 1st year of law school. We had interesting dinner conversation about this issue. He made me proud when he said these exact same words! Then the conversation, about how his generation was going to make sure it doesn's happen, stuff about the Constitution and the Supreme Court and the laws of the land, went way over my head...but more power to the young women and men that have an inkling of what this country stands for!