[hedgetrimmer]

Except America as a country was never designed to get all its goods from foreign countries. The inherent problem in arguing that our import system has capacity limitations, covers up the fact that too much stuff is coming in from foreign countries. This flies in the face of the concept of American independence, don't you think?

[dennisw]

Except America as a country was never designed to get all its goods from foreign countries. The inherent problem in arguing that our import system has capacity limitations, covers up the fact that too much stuff is coming in from foreign countries. This flies in the face of the concept of American independence, don't you think?

OF COURSE!! This flies in the face of American do-it-yourself sprit
We used to export a lot more than we import. We were a creditor nation. Now we are debtor nation and shamelessly import like crazy
But bear in mind the Chinese component of our trade deficit isn't growing nearly as fast as the oil/natural gas imports. $70-80 oil is impacting more than China.