Democratic Senators Byron Dorgan and Sherrod Brown put their heads together and came up with this execrable assault on good sense. They get off to a fast start, loading the first paragraph to the hilt with lies and irrelevances.

Fewer and fewer Americans support our government’s trade policy. They see a shrinking middle class, lost jobs and exploding trade deficits.

Let’s take this one bit at a time. Shrinking middle class? Well, yes, but not how Senators Dumb and Dumber would have you believe. The upperclass is growing as both the middle and lower classes shrink. Hardly something to complain about.

Lost jobs? What lost jobs? Unemployment is nearing record lows.

Exploding trade deficits? Who cares. That boogeyman has always been more form than substance. Trade deficits are not a particularly good indicator of anything, though they do make good soundbytes for opportunist populists.

Rob at Say Anything does a good job exposing the rest of the article’s nonsense.

William Overholt, in another WaPo op-ed, takes on the protectionists and their faulty assumptions.

Visit FreeTrade.org for more on the benefits of free trade.