THE WASHINGTON UNION PAPERS: NO. 13

HOW TO PHASE OUT FOREIGN-OWNED DEBT & RECLAIM FINANCIAL CONTROL

To the People of the United States,

A nation that owes its lifeblood to foreign creditors is not a nation at all—it is a hostage, a vassal, a country held on a financial leash by those who have no allegiance to its people. A republic that finds itself beholden to foreign creditors is a republic that has surrendered its sovereignty, its strength, and its future to the interests of those who hold its purse strings. No empire has ever survived while paying tribute to those beyond its borders, nor has any great power endured when its financial system is held hostage by those who seek not its prosperity but its submission. Yet today, the United States, the wealthiest nation in history, finds itself in such a position, bound not by military conquest but by the invisible chains of foreign debt.

It did not have to be this way. There was a time when American finance served American interests, when the government borrowed from its own people, when national development was funded by national resources. Yet over decades of mismanagement, reckless policy, and the relentless pursuit of short-term gains over long-term security, the nation's financial health has been compromised. The rise of global capital markets, the unchecked expansion of foreign investment in U.S. debt, and the government's own unwillingness to reclaim control over its own monetary system have left the American people at the mercy of external forces. The great industrialists of the past built railroads, forged steel, electrified cities, but their modern counterparts build nothing but debt obligations payable to foreign hands.

A nation in debt to foreign interests is a nation vulnerable. It is a nation that cannot dictate its own policies without considering how its creditors will respond. It is a nation that cannot fully pursue its economic interests without fear of financial retaliation. It is a nation that, in the moment of greatest need, may find itself at the mercy of foreign decision-makers who have no allegiance to its people, no stake in its prosperity, and no interest in its independence. The time has come to reverse this course. The time has come to phase out foreign-owned debt and reclaim financial control, not in some distant future, not as a vague aspiration, but as an immediate and necessary act of national preservation.

The first step in this process is to sever the government's reliance on foreign creditors by restructuring the way public debt is issued. At present, the U.S. Treasury freely auctions its debt to the highest bidder, allowing foreign governments, investment funds, and financial institutions to claim ownership over bonds that should rightfully belong to the American people. This is not just an economic vulnerability; it is a strategic failure. The solution is clear. The government must prioritize domestic ownership of debt by creating mechanisms that allow American citizens, businesses, and institutions to buy and hold the nation's obligations. This means offering tax incentives for domestic bondholders, restricting foreign access to new issuances, and ensuring that American capital finances American needs.

To phase out existing foreign debt, a systematic approach must be undertaken. The Treasury must begin purchasing back foreign-held securities, using a combination of increased domestic bond sales and revenue generated from financial reforms that reduce unnecessary expenditures and redirect funds toward debt repurchase. This is not an impossible task. Just as corporations conduct stock buybacks to reclaim ownership from external shareholders, so too can a nation reclaim control over its financial obligations. The United States must declare, unequivocally, that its economic sovereignty will no longer be for sale.

Critics will claim that such a shift would destabilize the financial system, that foreign creditors might retaliate, that global markets might panic. Let them panic. For too long, this nation has been governed by fear, by the trembling hands of policymakers who cower before the supposed wrath of international financiers. We have been conditioned to believe that our prosperity is dependent on the favor of those who trade in debt, that our economy will collapse if we sever the chains that bind us to foreign capital. This is the lie that has sustained the rule of the bankers, the illusion that has kept a powerful nation in economic servitude. It is time to expose it, to tear it apart, to remind the world that America’s wealth was not built by the whims of speculators in Shanghai, London, or Riyadh, but by the sweat and toil of its own people.

The withdrawal of foreign creditors will not destroy the economy; it will liberate it. We have been told that without their capital, industry will grind to a halt, that without their investment, growth will cease, that without their approval, markets will crumble. Enough. The American worker does not rise in the morning because of a Chinese bondholder’s permission. The farmer does not plant his crops based on the approval of a sovereign wealth fund in the Middle East. The factory does not produce, the teacher does not teach, the builder does not build because foreign financiers dictate that they may. They do so because they are the foundation of this nation, because their labor—not capital manipulation—is what gives an economy its strength.

It is not America that should fear the loss of foreign creditors; it is foreign creditors who should fear the loss of America. They do not lend to us out of goodwill. They do not purchase our debt as an act of charity. They do so because it is the safest and most reliable investment they can make, because they know that the wealth of this nation, even under their parasitic rule, is too great to ignore. What happens when the United States closes its books to foreign profiteers? What happens when the interest payments that once flowed into foreign coffers are redirected into domestic investment, into infrastructure, into small businesses, into the wages of American workers? What happens when the economic strength of this nation is no longer siphoned off, but reinvested in the people who built it?

They will call it radical. They will call it reckless. They will call it a dangerous experiment. But what is truly radical is the idea that the most powerful economy on Earth must grovel for loans from foreign powers. What is reckless is allowing the fate of our industries, our policies, and our future to be dictated by entities whose interests do not align with our own. What is dangerous is pretending that a sovereign nation cannot stand on its own feet, cannot sustain itself, cannot harness its own wealth without relying on those who seek to extract it.

This country has been deceived into thinking that it is weak, that it must depend on foreign capital to survive. But it is not weakness that has brought us to this point—it is betrayal. It is the betrayal of leadership that chose the easy path of borrowing instead of the hard path of self-sufficiency. It is the betrayal of those who handed over the nation’s wealth to global financiers in exchange for short-term political convenience. It is the betrayal of an economic order that told Americans they must accept debt servitude as the price of progress. That betrayal must end.

Reclaiming financial control is not an act of defiance; it is an act of restoration. It is the reassertion of the simple truth that no great nation has ever built its future on borrowed money. It is the recognition that sovereignty is not just a matter of military strength or political independence, but of economic self-determination. The time for fear has passed. Let the markets shake. Let the creditors howl. This is our country. This is our wealth. And it is time to take it back.

Reclaiming financial control does not stop at government debt. The same forces that have placed the nation in a position of economic servitude have also ensnared individual citizens in a web of foreign-owned financial interests.

The American housing market, student loan system, and corporate sector have all been infiltrated by foreign capital seeking to extract wealth from American workers. A true restoration of economic sovereignty requires more than just repurchasing government debt—it requires dismantling the mechanisms that allow foreign entities to dictate the financial fate of American families. This means strengthening regulations that limit foreign ownership of critical industries, ensuring that American banks serve American borrowers rather than acting as intermediaries for global capital, and restoring the principle that the economy exists to serve the people, not to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.

There are those who will argue that international finance is too entrenched, that the debt is too great, that the ties are too deep to be undone. They will say that to attempt such a transformation is to court disaster, that the only path forward is to accept the status quo, to manage decline rather than reverse it. They are wrong. The history of this nation is a history of defying the impossible. It is the history of breaking free from the dominion of those who sought to control its fate, whether through arms or through wealth. The founding generation refused to accept British economic rule. The industrialists of the nineteenth century refused to let foreign powers dictate the future of American industry. The builders of this nation have never cowered before the forces of financial servitude. This generation must be no different.

A republic cannot remain free if it is not financially independent. A nation cannot be strong if it does not control its own economic destiny. A country that owes its future to foreign creditors is not a country in control of its own fate—it is a hostage, a subordinate, a shadow of what it once was. We have allowed ourselves to be shackled, not by invading armies, but by the invisible hands of foreign financiers who dictate the terms of our debt, who profit from our economic stagnation, who grow fat on the interest payments siphoned from the labor of American workers. This is not just mismanagement. This is betrayal. And it must end.

The time has come to reclaim what has been lost. We must cast off the burden of foreign-owned debt, not with hesitation, not with apologies, but with the full force of a nation that refuses to be owned. Every dollar of interest we pay to foreign hands is a dollar stolen from our infrastructure, our education, our security, our people. Every loan issued by a foreign creditor is a noose around the neck of American sovereignty. We will not bow to the dictates of global capital. We will not allow foreign interests to determine the value of our currency, the strength of our markets, the course of our policies. We will not continue to be a republic in name while functioning as an economic colony to those who see us as nothing more than a balance sheet asset.

This is not a question of whether it should be done. It is a question of whether we have the courage to do it. And make no mistake—this will not be an easy fight. The entrenched forces of global finance will resist. They will spread fear, they will manipulate markets, they will attempt to break the will of this nation through economic sabotage. They have done it before, and they will do it again. They will warn of financial collapse, of uncertainty, of retaliation. Let them. We do not answer to them. We do not exist to serve their interests. We are not their clients, we are not their customers—we are their masters, and it is time they remembered that. The people of this nation do not exist to prop up the wealth of international creditors. The American economy belongs to the American people, and it will be taken back.

The answer must be yes. There is no compromise, no half-measure, no incremental reform that will solve this crisis. It must be done wholly and completely, with the full conviction of a people who refuse to be owned. Public debt must be repatriated. Private banking monopolies that facilitate foreign economic control must be shattered. Our financial markets must be rebuilt to serve our industries, our workers, our future—not the portfolios of foreign elites.

The alternative is not just financial decline, but national decline. If we do not act, we will become a country that no longer directs its own affairs, a nation where policy is dictated not by the will of the people but by the interests of global financiers. A nation where economic policy is written in boardrooms overseas. A nation where debt payments take priority over wages, over security, over innovation, over national strength. A nation in freefall, unable to stop its descent because it has handed over the controls to those who have no stake in its survival. That is the fate that awaits us if we refuse to act, if we choose cowardice over boldness, if we surrender our financial independence for the sake of temporary comfort.

The American people must never accept this. We are not a nation of servants. We do not exist to enrich those who produce nothing but debt. We do not kneel before oligarchs, whether they sit in palaces or in boardrooms. We do not submit. We rise. We take back what is ours. We cast off the shackles of foreign-owned debt and reclaim our future. We do it not because it is easy, not because it is convenient, but because it must be done. Because to do otherwise is to accept servitude. Because to do otherwise is to admit that the republic is lost. Because to do otherwise is to allow this great nation to wither under the weight of its own weakness. And that is something we must never allow.

The fight begins now. Let the financiers tremble. Let the debt merchants take notice. The American people are awake, and we are coming to take back what is ours. No more negotiations. No more surrender. No more paying tribute to those who see us as their property. The time for waiting is over. The time for action is now. Either we rise, or we fall. Either we seize control of our financial destiny, or we accept the slow, grinding erosion of everything this country was built to stand for. The choice is ours. But know this—if we rise, if we fight, if we take back what is rightfully ours, then this nation will not just endure. It will prosper. It will lead. And it will never again be owned.