--and if we count everything we sell to foreigners it's equal to everything we buy from foreigners (balance of payments explained here). What politicians call the 'trade balance' is only goods and services and it's leaving out stuff like stocks, bonds, buildings, designs, patents, land, etc.
And Beagle, these guys aren't libs. They are paleos. They just think like libs. One, while complaining about the U.S./S. Korea Free Trade Agreement the other day, asked how much the S. Koreans pay for our defense. So I asked him, how much more he was willing to pay for a HDTV to make up for it. He never responded. It's that crystal-clear logic that I mentioned in my comment #53: my taxes need to be raised for my own good, by people who know better than I.
Just like I need to pay more for imported kimchi because my counterpart in Korea isn't paying more for my defense.