This year, the imbalance of imports vs. exports with China (aka Trade Deficit) topped over $200 billion. That means the USA imported $200 billion more goods into its country than China imported into their country. What does this mean? It boils down to jobs. The people in our area have seen Anderson's Magnaquench close and relocate out of our area after a Chinese buyout and pullout. The last North American Jean company closed and relocated to China recently. China recently bought out a major portion of IBM, Big Blue and renamed it Lenovo. When the Republican led congress would not renew the forestry and mining resource land protections out west, it allowed foreign countries to come in and buy up those resources. The list literally goes on and on. Currently only 1 in 20 shipping containers arriving in from China are being inspected. And while I wait for the train here in Pendleton, I see "CHINA SHIPPING" written on the side of very plain looking containers.

Our Indiana Democratic Senator Evan Bayh attempted to shed light on the alarming imbalance numbers last year before the elections by attempting to impose a 19 percent tax on all Chinese imports in order to level the playing field. The republican led congress gunned down that legislation. The backbone of the argument is exposing the fact that China's banking system manipulates their Chinese currency in such a way as to make its currency weaker than the US Dollar. They have been doing this for years and resist change even with US complaints about this shady practice. By weakening their own Chinese currency, they empower the US Buck to buy up all of their cheap goods. Go to Walmart and look on the shelves. In turn, a poor Chinese citizen cannot afford to buy even the cheapest of US Made Goods. This creates an imbalance that favors the Chinese and undermines the United States playing on an equal level on the trade table.

This is not fair trade.