The Jones Act and a Bit of a Rant

I try to avoid politics as much as possible on this blog.  That is not the purpose of this blog.  For the most part, the purpose of this blog is show off my pictures.    Occasionally, there are things that I like to comment on and this is one of them.

http://www.americanmaritimepartnership.com/2015/01/14/mccain-amendment-eliminate-u-s-shipbuilding-outsource-u-s-jobs-security/

The Jones Act was enacted in 1920 as an effort to protect the US Shipbuilding Industry.  Basically it states that ships that travel between US ports have to be US built, owned and manned.  It was passed at a time when Congress was interested in more than just lining the pockets of Wall Street.  There are some people that say that this act costs us money because it makes shipping tonnage between US ports scarce.  It also forces those companies to use US shipyards to build their ships which they says adds costs.  Funny thing those....much of those costs are used to pay US workers and they probably go right back into the US economy.  So do we really pay more in the long run?

Recently Senator McCain attached a rider to the Keystone XL bill in order to eliminate the requirement that the ships have to be built in the US.  Honestly, I'm not sure what this would accomplish except decimate what is left of the US shipbuilding industry.  Given the current fiscal climate in Washington, the US Navy and Coast Guard will not be able to provide enough work for those companies to stay afloat.  This would likely eliminate more high paying jobs.  To what end?  To further line pockets that don't need further lining.

At any rate, I urge you to write your Senators to vote against this rider.

One other minor side effect, repealing this portion would probably mean the end of the few classic lakers that are left.