McCain has been agitating against the Jones Act for a long time. The Jones Act does raise costs for shipping between US ports, but without it there would be no US Merchant Marine. International shipping is manned by dollar-a-day Third World sailors, a large number of whom have their passports confiscated once on board and are basically slaves. They get abandoned in distant ports or become personae non gratae, trapped in port or on rusting hulks with no means to get home.
McCain is in someone’s pocket in the international shipping industry. US merchant shipping is already at levels insufficient to sustain any significant tempo of military operations or losses against a sophisticated enemy. To damage it further is hardly the position of a patriot.
Well said.