Trade Deficit at Record Level

The trade deficit, which we all thought had gone away for good after the Reagan era ended and Bill Clinton virtually eliminated it, is at a record level. The deficit for this year now projects to be over $700 billion, more than $100 billion over what it was last year (also a record). At least the Republicans can say they're the champs of something. I guess they're also pretty good at making hasty decisions, getting people killed, and lining their own pockets.

Anyway, critics have quite rightly pointed out that the nation's inability to balance its trade is hurting us by scaring off investors--nobody wants to buy into a country that is hurtling towards an obvious economic disaster. Many of these critics are conservatives, too, so it ain't like this is all coming straight from Howard Dean. I don't think the Chinese are liberals, but they sure as hell have curtailed their purchases of US bonds.

But, in the face of serious concerns and valid criticisms, the administration has done what it always does in these situations: play the fool. "Oh, there's no trade deficit," said assclown, Secretary of the Treasury, and professional Bush apologist John Snow. "No, no, no: what's happening here is that the US economy is growing faster than everyone elses', so we have a higher demand for imports." Of course, you'd think that the magnificent new economy we have would show itself in, I don't know, employment numbers, manufacturing numbers, new home starts--in fact, you'd think it would show up somewhere other than in John Snow's mind. But, as any fool can see, we are still in a recession. Nothing is improving, but most everything IS getting worse.

And the monkeys in charge have their fingers in their ears. Nice.