October 13, 2006 10:57AM # Record Trade Deficit + Campaign Season = Infuriating Statements By [Sallie James](https://www.cato.org/people/sallie-james) --- SHARE From the *LA Times* this morning, an [article](http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-econ13oct13,1,2919182.story?coll=la-headlines-business) on the trade deficit for August. Both imports and exports were up slightly from the July figures, and the trade deficit itself was $69.9 billion. But it was not so much the trade figures that interested me (after all, the trade deficit has hit record highs repeatedly lately), but this statement from Rep. Marcy Kaptur: > “We are not only shipping jobs overseas, we are shipping billions of dollars overseas,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D‑Ohio), a critic of Bush administration policies calling for free-trade pacts. “We are exporting our jobs and our wealth, not our products.” *We are shipping billions of dollars overseas?* On net, the United States must, by definition, be a net importer of capital to balance the current account. I won’t belabor that point, though, since my colleague Dan Griswold has covered the topic more than ably [here](http://www.freetrade.org/node/61)). Kaptur, currently seeking reelection in Ohio’s 9th district, is one of the least trade-friendly members of Congress, according to last year’s rating of the 108th Congress (available [here](http://www.freetrade.org/node/33)). Her [press release](http://wwwc.house.gov/Kaptur/Article.aspx?NewsID=1550) on the trade deficit seems to boast of her being a “leading critic of “free trade” policies” (note the quotation marks around free trade, signifying, I assume, that free trade is a quaint concept). I understand that it is election time and all, but I find it very frustrating that marketing oneself as someone who will fight *against* free trade — a poverty fighter, growth promoter and trust-buster all in one — is perceived to be a winning strategy. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Trade Policy](https://www.cato.org/trade-policy), [Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies](https://www.cato.org/herbert-stiefel-center-trade-policy-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).