Economic Sense from a Communist?

“Mr Wen [Jiabao,The Chinese Prime Minister] said that among the reasons behind the current global downturn were ‘inappropriate macroeconomic policies in some economies, characterised by [a] low savings rate and high consumption’.”

-Cited from a bbc.co.uk article “Crisis has ‘hit Chinese economy.’” 1/28/09, 1:45 pm.
It is pathetic when a CCP official better understands economics than the president of a free market country like the United States. Granted China is more of a fascist country with a state capitalist economy than a communist. But still a CCP official is making better economic sense than the American president? I am sick of people blaming the “greedy CEO’s” for the economic crisis. Yes certainly they are responsible but they are not solely (or even largely) responsible for the economic crisis. What truly caused the crisis was fiscal irresponsibility by the government and private individuals. For decades America has become a country that has spent with reckless abandon with no thought the consequences. Now many Americans are deep in debt and our federal government is in virtual bankruptcy. Yet the economic advice from both the past and current presidents has been “spend more.” Mr. Bush after the 9/11 attacks told Americans to go out and shop. Both he and Mr. Obama have proposed gigantic bailout plans worth over a trillion dollars. We are in the midst of an economic crisis our leaders advise us not to save for rebuilding the economy for the future but to spend more?

Money, unfortunately, does not grow on trees. If President Obama plans on spending a trillion dollars on a bailout plan I would ask him and his advisors where he plans to get the funds for such a bailout. Both he and Mr. McCain stressed fiscal responsibility in their election platforms yet the programs that both suggested are fiscally irresponsible. The government does not produce wealth. It must raise taxes in order to fill its treasury. It can borrow money but this only delays the inevitable raise in taxes. And borrowing can be dangerous since it indebts our nation to foreign countries such as China, which can potentially complicate up our foreign policy.
The points is that more wanton spending in the form a bailout is not what our country needs right now. What we need is a return to fiscal conservatism and make people realize that there are consequences when they foolishly squander capital. America is a wealthy nation but our wealth is not infinite. The government and the common American cannot continue to pile up debt. When John Maynard Keynes was questioned about the potential fiscal consequences of his recommendation to use deficit spending to extract the world from the Great Depression he replied, rather cynically, that we would all be dead soon anyway. I pray that Americans would not be so short sighted and narcissistic. That they would not look to immediate quick fixes that will only indebt ourselves further and save for the long term.