The Chinese have taken over the U.S. They have beaten us at our own game, but the sad thing is, our politicians handed it to them.

It started with all of the trade deals made by President Bill Clinton and supported in a bipartisan way by Congress. We were duped by our politicians and Wall Street. These policies have been expanded by the Bush and the Obama administrations.

Our politicians and Wall Street executives keep saying, “China is the largest market in the world.” That is true, but why would China buy anything from the U.S.? They make everything in China and raise all the food they need cheaper than we can produce it.

Our corporations have outsourced almost all production to other countries, such as China, that don’t have minimum-wage laws or environmental regulations. There is no way we can compete with this.

Our politicians are trying to get China to devalue its currency so our goods will be cheaper and they will buy from us. The Chinese are not stupid. Why would they do that? They won’t.

We keep running up enormous trade deficits every year and our politicians keep adding to our huge federal deficit. Then we borrow money we have paid to China. China now owns us, and at this point, there is nothing we can do about it.

China’s economy is growing three times faster than the U.S. economy. If you want to know why we are in an irreversible recession, read above.

Alan Osborn, Hartford