Is it your contention that the US does not have a National Security interest in producing its own steel and aluminum..?
At any price?
Do not the national security implications outweigh the price considerations for this most basic material?
You might be interested in this recent article from “Watts Up With That.”
WUWT is the Number One anti-global warming website in the world. Almost everyone who posts or comments there is a scientist, engineer, or mathematician.
Strategic Minerals - Our Next Energy And Security Crisis?
By Paul Driessen
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2018/02/26/strategic-minerals-our-next-energy-and-security-crisis/
That's a false premise, that unless government protects steel we won't have it to make tanks and artillery pieces. We have adequate steel production for that already. We don't outsource that to China. Still the best steel in the world is made here, the ingredients and production methods are the best. What we don't need is massive government projects or tariffs at astronomical prices to prop up an industry that clearly was not competitive and(or) efficient when it began to go into the crapper in the 70's through the mid 1980's.
Keynes was wrong like Marx was, in the long term government spending does little for long-term GDP growth and increases the velocity cycle on money and increases inflation.