America is in crisis. In the midst of a pandemic, society is locked down, the economy is stalled and the death count mounts. As of March 30, three-quarters of Americans were living under stay at home mandates or advisories in the fight against the spread of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus.
Americans are buying all the food and supplies they can find and downloading Zoom, everyone’s new favorite hangout. One of the ironies of the moment is that staying home and doing nothing with freshly sanitized hands can actually save lives. Americans are told to work together to flatten the curve, and practice social distancing, altering the rhythms and texture of everyday life.
A sense of anxiety and fragility is everywhere.
The economic fallout has been swift and dramatic. The unemployment rate climbed to 4.4 percent in March from 3.5 percent in February, the largest one month increase since January 1975. The economy lost 701,000 jobs in March, but the numbers only begin to capture the beginning of a job market collapse. Weekly initial jobless claims reports reveal nearly 10 million new unemployment insurance claims in just the last two weeks of March.
These numbers are a coming attraction for what is to come, thanks to our pals in the CCP and the business, political, and academic grandees who encouraged offshoring American jobs to China. The increased reliance on worldwide production and long supply chains has undermined America’s national security.
This crowd traded American industrial strength and technology for access to China’s huge market and cheap consumer goods. The price they were willing to pay was teaching China how to manufacture their products and sharing their cutting–edge intellectual property, which helped China join the superpower club. The CCP has been brilliant in exploiting the imprudent greed, myopia, and corporate vanity of western business leaders who kowtow before the CCP regime.
It is not certain whether Vladmir Ilyich Ulyanov, better known as Lenin, actually said: “The capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” But if he didn’t, he certainly thought it, and if he were still around, he would likely claim the prophecy as his own. The ruling class in Washington, Wall Street, and the academy sent the CCP the money to buy the rope.
The board overseas the nearly $600 billion Thrift Savings Plan, a retirement savings plan similar to a 401(k), for 5.6 million federal employees and members of the military. The index fund includes companies involved in the Chinese government’s military activities and companies being sanctioned by the US government. To cite one specific example, the index includes China’s state -owned Aviation Industry Corporation. This firm is the sole supplier of military aircraft to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army. Federal employee money is being used to support an adversary, undermining the country’s national security and fueling China’s economic growth.
A group of lawmakers introduced bipartisan, bicameral legislation to ban the investment of Thrift Savings Plan funds in securities listed on mainland China exchanges. Pushing back, the board’s general counsel said that the 1986 legislation that created the plan shows the accounts are private, not federal property.
“The employees owns it and it cannot be tampered with by any entity including Congress,” the general counsel went on to say, neglecting to mention the fund consists of taxpayer money, not private capital.
This decision is another egregious example of an organization facing no consequences for refusing to act in the best interests of the United States and never having to say you are sorry. It’s bad for the United States and good for a strategic foreign adversary.
