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You pointed out an error. I should have addressed this as our overall trade deficit, not just our trade deficit with China.

Here is an article from September, 2007. It pegs our trade deficit at around $725 billion dollars.

http://www.fibre2fashion.com/news/association-news/amtac/newsdetails.aspx?news_id=40863

As usual, you’re too cute by half. The issue I was addressing is real, even if it isn’t totally a problem with China.

The issue is, should we be content to allow trillions of multiplier effect dollars escape our economy each year?

First of all, we don't know how many dollars "escape." (In other words, you are still overstating the number). Secondly, even the dollars that "escape" return.

You might not approve of the way they return, or the way they "escaped" in the first place, but the moment you start thinking that you can find a way to direct in in one way or the other, you end up causing more problems than you solve. That's the fundamental difference between free-traders and protectionists. The former instinctively know that the government will find a way to screw things up, and the latter is always thinking "well, maybe this time . . . ."

It's why everyone ignores my Caterpillar example: there's no reason why Colombia should by Cat bulldozers from the EU instead of the US. Yet the protectionists argue that signing a free trade agreeement with Colombia will cost high-paying manufacturing jobs.

"...trillions of multiplier effect dollars escape our economy..."

The understanding is that a trade deficit is dollars leaving the country because Americans buy more imports than they sell exports. Lots of people think that this is what happens but they're wrong. It's not all that hard to disprove, let me know if you're interested.