If an increase in the trade deficit is bad ….

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42005480

The above-linked item appeared on CNBC last week following the release of the January trade data.  The following caught my eye:

A widening trade deficit is bad for the U.S. economy. When imports outpace exports, more jobs go to foreign workers than to U.S. workers.

Oops!  How’d that one slip past the globalization PC police?  Aren’t we constantly told that trade deficits don’t matter, that free trade is always beneficial? 

If “a widening trade deficit is bad for the U.S. economy,” then isn’t it logical that any trade deficit at all is bad as well?  If an increase of $6.0 billion in the monthly trade deficit is “bad,” then isn’t the $40 billion per month trade deficit that we started with much worse?  If it’s bad for the U.S. economy, wouldn’t it make sense to fix it? 

I hope that the next life is a place where logic prevails.