Americans' Health Is At Risk Due To The Wasteful Spending Habits Of Our Congress
By Dave Gibson (06/06/07)
Earlier this year, the danger of importing Chinese-made food products became clear as many American's pets were poisoned by imported Chinese wheat gluten tainted with melamine. However, wheat gluten is only one of the potentially deadly products China sends to this country. That nation has a history of exporting sub-standard and even poisoned food, the communist dictatorship also hold an enormous amount of our national debt...Consequently, our elected representatives will not get tough with their pork-barrel creditors.
In the last few days, the FDA has issued a warning against using Chinese-made toothpaste because it has been found to contain the very toxic chemical diethylene glycol, which is the main ingredient of antifreeze. In addition to toothpaste, DEG has been discovered in Chinese-made cough syrup and has recently caused the deaths of at least 100 people.
A quick glance at FDA reports shows that many imported foods from China are regularly refused by FDA inspectors. Their refusal reports typically cite the following: prunes soaked in chemical dyes, frozen shrimp preserved with known cancer-causing agent nitrofuran, toxic cosmetic products, and "poisonous" swordfish.
During the first four months of 2007, FDA inspectors rejected 298 food shipments from China, as opposed to only 56 shipments from Canada which exports eight times more to the U.S. than does China. Considering the fact that the FDA inspects less than one percent of food imports to this nation, the amount of unsafe and even poisonous Chinese products entering our market is frightening indeed.
China is the biggest polluter on the planet, their ever-growing industrial base observes no ecological standards and many Chinese citizens lack modern plumbing. Less than 50 percent of China has sewage treatment plants. Because of these factors, China's rivers and streams have been turned into virtual cesspools. Their fish are full of harmful bacteria and parasites.
In order to pass their seafood off as acceptable, the Chinese pump huge amounts of antibiotics and pesticides (most of which are banned in the U.S.) into their waters. All Chinese seafood carries the potential for illness as well as the growth of antibiotic resistance and should be viewed as unfit for human consumption. Despite these facts, the U.S. federal government continues to allow Chinese seafood imports to increase every year.
So what does all of this have to do with the irresponsible spending habits of Congress?
Because Republicans and Democrats have raided the federal Treasury and bankrupted our grandchildren's future with earmarks and pet projects, this nation is being crushed under our own debt.The National Debt is now sitting at a staggering $8.8 trillion. Since September 2006, the debt has been growing by $1.3 billion a day. Foreign nations finance a large amount of that debt. In particular, China now owns 33 percent of our foreign-held debt.
A little over a year ago, the then so-called conservative Republican Congress voted to raise the National Debt ceiling to $9 trillion in order to continue their spending spree and prevent China from foreclosing on this country. We are only making the minimum payment on that debt, instead of paying it down.
With China financing highway beautification projects, bridges to nowhere, and the Iraq war--our Congressmen are not anxious to demand that they stop poisoning their constituents.
Because we have allowed soul-less politicians to spend us into financial ruin, our food supply is now largely at the mercy of a criminal nation.
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