TWO BIG PROBLEMS

Although the focus of the national news outlets has been on the situations in the Middle-East and particularly the armed struggle in Libya, two most recent "news" items have caught my attention. These reports are on our national unemployment rate and our national debt to foreign nations.

The Federal Government released on February 28, 2011 a current, and I use that term loosely, report on the on-going debt of the USA to foreign nations. These monthly reports are traditionally made in such a fashion that the calculations are 60 days in the past. The 2/28/11 figures that were disclosed reflect only what was owed by America on the last day of December, 2010.

It was no surprise that our biggest creditor remains Communist China but what was shocking was the amount of money we owe this long time political, economic and philosophically oriented adversary. As of the end of 2010 year we owed Communist China $1,160,000,000,000.00. That debt, expressed by another method, is $1.16 Trillion. Several questions immediately raise their ugly heads. How can we possibly pay this amount back? How great must tax increases be to even dent the amount of this obligation? What concessions has B. H. Obama made to Peking to encourage this ever growing obligation and to discourage any massive liquidation of these holdings?

Those political commentators who have noticed and condemned the respect that Obama pays to Communist China must surely admit that this White House attention to our biggest potential economic threat is an admission that we are in a secondary role in that relationship.

By the way, our second largest national debt is to another Asian nation, Japan. This debt to our recently left leaning ally is rapidly approaching $900.0 Billion.

Issue number two is unemployment figures. This matter has been examined by a noted economic journalist with emphasis made on actual reported numbers without the impact of self serving government exemptions. Counting only the reported unemployed and not the under-employed, the figures are: October 2010 - - - 9.0%
November 2010 --- 9.3%
December 2010 --- 9.1%
January 2011 --- 9.8%

Another calculation showed January unemployment figures for the past 4 years at:
January 2008 --- 5.8%
January 2009 --- 9.3%
January 2010 --- 9.6%
January 2011 --- 9.8%

The sad, unfortunate and depressing reality in these 2 cited areas of America's financial status is that they show little, if any, indication of improvement. Drastic economical measures must be implement by the Republicans that control the House of Representatives to reverse both mentioned situations. These drastic measures must be followed by election defeats of Democrats in 2012 and particularly the retirement of B. H. Obama.