Unfortunately, our stupid goverment LOVES to lean on the Chinese government as support when we're in "need" of "money" - we're in debt to them forever, now (an, no, it's not all Bush's debt).
Half of it is Bush's debt.
09/30/2009 11,909,829,003,511.75
09/30/2008 10,024,724,896,912.49
09/30/2007 9,007,653,372,262.48
09/30/2006 8,506,973,899,215.23
09/30/2005 7,932,709,661,723.50
09/30/2004 7,379,052,696,330.32
09/30/2003 6,783,231,062,743.62
09/30/2002 6,228,235,965,597.16
09/30/2001 5,807,463,412,200.06
09/30/2000 5,674,178,209,886.86
Another huge chunk is Reagan's - he didn't just double the debt like Bush did, he almost tripled it.
09/29/1989 2,857,430,960,187.32
09/30/1988 2,602,337,712,041.16
09/30/1987 2,350,276,890,953.00
09/30/1986 2,125,302,616,658.42
09/30/1985 * 1,823,103,000,000.00
09/30/1984 * 1,572,266,000,000.00
09/30/1983 * 1,377,210,000,000.00
09/30/1982 * 1,142,034,000,000.00
09/30/1981 * 997,855,000,000.00
09/30/1980 * 907,701,000,000.00
And before you claim a democratic congress during these years, go look it up and you'll find the Senate was majority Republicans for most of these years. The Democrats had control only for 2 of Bush's years and 2 of Reagans. The other 12 years were ALL REPUBLICAN.
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt.htm