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Fretting over China is a prime occupation in Washington. China is said to be both chiefly at fault for our huge trade deficit and indispensable to financing our huge budget deficit. Some go further, arguing that we are declining, the PRC is rising, and we better keep it on board, or else.

These are the excuses of a government that can't exert even the minimal self-discipline needed to guide the American economy "” by far the world's largest "” which has the best endowment of human, natural and technological resources, and the most flexible, adaptive markets.

Our top political figures cover for their failures by wildly overstating the importance of China to our trade and budget deficits. In trade, sustained deficits like ours stem ultimately from too little...