Paul Kane must have been wearing a pair of bad idea jeans when he penned his op-ed in the New York Times calling for the US to trade Taiwan to China for $1.14 trillion in debt forgiveness by the Chinese government. Kane thinks that the US’s commitment to defend Taiwan in the event of an attack by China is a vestige of the Cold War that should be left behind, in exchange for the Chinese government forgiving all the US debt they currently hold. Kane is worried that debt is a drag on our economy, though he just asserts this without evidence beyond a quote from retired Admiral Mike McMullen asserting the same.

Debt hawkishness is bad enough. It’s infected elite discourse and genuinely prevented actual steps that would create jobs and right the economy from being enacted. But debt hawkishness paired with the idea of selling out an ally democracy? This is just a horrible idea and one that I hope finds no traction in political discourse.