Of course it would be a nice thing if the US were to balance its budget, but I'm not holding my breath. The problem is that we would still be facing trade deficits because the USA on the whole consumes more than it produces. Granted, this is partly due to ill advised consumer behavior, but there is a historical precident for using trade policies as a weapon that used to be understood by the people running the country.

We've still got big government, I guess you can use that money to pay taxes or something.

I guess they'd be out some money, and we'd be dead.

Phrase it in whatever simplistic terms you'd like, but the original source of funding for the Federal government as per the Constitution was tariffs.

It depends, because if you did allow oxygen production to be done by China and India, you'd be in big trouble if they ever decided to stop supplying it.

One would hope that you are correct, but the problem is that in the World War 2 era the US had many factories that could be repurposed, now people spend years in college without even coming close to learning how to produce anything. Of course "free trade isn't the only problem", but the value in being nationally self sufficient is the hidden cost that John Stossel is missing here.

"how has our standard of living decreased for decades?" You have got to be kidding me. In the 50s a single person working a blue collar job could support a family, own a house and a car, and save for retirement. Now most families require two incomes just to stay afloat. Standard of living isn't just measured in the prevalance of cheap consumer junk. The "boomer" generation was able to get into the middle class by doing any number of jobs, now kids either have to borrow tens of thousands of dollars, or serve as a centurion in Empire America, just to get an "education" to allow them to get one of the new paper pushing jobs. But I guess they can have computers in cars to make them feel better...

Sure, for now. But real unemployment is far higher than the government issued statistics, And the worst of the economic collapse hasn't even hit yet.

It's funny even still talking to people who still buy the line that "free trade" is good for us because it lets us buy more cheap consumer stuff. People need to understand that the USA has been deindustrialized by design because a strong self sufficient USA couldn't be brought to the globalist table. Only a country that is deeply in debt and that doesn't produce the things that the people need can be forced to accept major changes in their system of government. When the dollar does fall as the reserve currency people will understand that the USA doesn't even produce enough food to feed itself anymore. This is the legacy of "free trade", and the price will be the liberties that your ancestors bled for.

So if everyone is better off then please explain the current economic conditions. Please explain how the US standard of living has been in decline for decades when we all should be better off under "free trade".