I hear Republicans rant often about the “runaway” national debt and how China is going to “own this country” if we don’t pick up our bootstraps and let Romney give rich people more tax breaks.

If every American borrowed $100,000 from China to buy a house, we would owe China $31,427,982,500,000. That’s double the total national debt which stands around $15 trillion, and we’ve built offices, houses, roads, schools, parks, libraries, a military, and the list goes on.

Further, the amount we owe China is less than 8% of our national debt. In fact, all foreign investors combined make up less than half of the debt. We actually owe the majority of it to American interests—to ourselves!

The next time a Republican tells you our national debt is a crisis, ask him how his mortgage is holding out. Fine? Ok then.