Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TideGlider who wrote (104988)	5/17/2011 10:56:43 AM
From: lorne	1 Recommendation Respond to of 224886

Chinese Official Lectures Senators: Get Your Fiscal House in Order JONATHAN KARL (@jonkarl) and GREGORY SIMMONS (@abcgregory) WASHINGTON, May 16, 2011 Sen. Bennet Takes a Ride on ABC's 'Subway Series'...video abcnews.go.com Not only is the mounting U.S. debt causing anxiety at home, one Democratic senator tells ABC News that a group of senators faced an embarrassing reprimand by a Chinese official on a recent Congressional delegation to Asia. "The most embarrassing moment to me on that trip was when a government official said to me, or said the to the delegation, you guys need to get your fiscal house in order," Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said of an April congressional delegation to China that was led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "I felt like being at a shareholder meeting for a corporation and the shareholder is saying you're being irresponsible." Bennet comments in an interview on ABC News' "Subway Series". You can watch the interview with Sen. Bennet here. "Not only do they own a bunch of our debt, but they have a cash surplus which they're using to invest in infrastructure and in natural resources all over the globe," Bennet said. "That's what we are increasingly incapable of doing unless we get this resolved." Embarrassing or not, Bennet agrees with the Chinese on this issue: The United States needs to act now to get mounting deficits under control. "If we can't come up with a deal this year, you know as well as I do that we're not going to come up with a deal next year," Bennet said, referencing the upcoming presidential race. "If you ask me what are the chances that the capital markets, the guys that own the debt that we have sold them, come to the conclusion that we're not serious about the fiscal problem, I would say it would be a catastrophe." Bennet, who was elected last November to a full term in the Senate after being appointed in 2009 to fill the seat Ken Salazar vacated when he was named secretary of the interior, says his hopes are with the bipartisan "Gang of Six" senators who have been attempting to craft a deal to get the budget closer to balance. But with little support from the White House or from either the Republican or Democratic Congressional leadership, the Gang of Six is considered by many in Washington to be all-but dead. "It's not dead," Bennet said. "I think, in fact, I would say it has some of the most promise we have. [The stakes] are very high." Bennet says for his part as long as the Gang produces a plan he can "sink his teeth" into he'll be the first one to support it.