Hyperbole has no place in a pedantic blog like this, but Congressman Randy Forbes’ comments yesterday at the Chamber of Commerce breakfast was simply beyond silly. He takes issue with our “friendly” treatment of China. Rather than bashing our largest foreign lender and largest supplier to the millions of Walmart shoppers, he would be better served trying to understand them.

We ask China two questions. First, why have you no respect for individuals? Second, why do you keep our unemployment high by keeping your currency cheap?

They ask us two questions. First, why have you no respect for communities and the greater good? Second, why do you want us to increase unemployment in our country by making our currency expensive?

Both sides inched closer to resolving these cultural differences last week, whether Congressman Forbes understands or not. Does he really expect them to jettison centuries of culture, just to adopt ours overnight?

Oh, and one more point, the U.S. spends 18% of its budget on defense, compared to only 8% by China. While that percentage is rising faster in China than here, they are still loaning us $300 million every day of every week to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe, the Congressman is just jealous they can afford their own military expense?