The point is there is nothing per se wrong with so-called “trade deficits”. Goods that are purchased can either consumed or parleyed into other products which can in turn be sold domestically or internationally.
THE issue is the high cost of doing business in the U.S. and the culprit is the federal government as explained along with the solutions in post #78.
If you were talking a trade “deficit” of raw materials your argument would have merit... I am importing $20 Billion in raw materials to make $70 Billion in products... but that’s now what US trade deficits are.
The plane truth is, manufacturing creates wealth, real tangible wealth, not paper wealth. For every manufacturing job created approximately 2.5 support jobs are created... for ever service industry job, about 1.3 support jobs are created. Nothing, nothing creates true wealth, and spreads wealth better than manufacturing, no other industry comes close.
Export your manufacturing base, and yes, while the free traders will say we manufacture more today than in the past, the reality is, when you view it per capital and adjusted for inflation that is just not true.
Can a trade deficit not be a net negative in some instances, sure... but those are not the situation the US is in, not remotely.
When you have literally folks being laid off so that the US can ship raw materials to the other side of the world for assembly and then have the items shipped back to the US for sale, you are not looking at a trade deficit that is a net positive in any way.