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| Home Front: Politix |
| Sink the Jones Act |
| 2010-06-25 |
| The Jones Act is a vestige of the post-World War I years, when the vulnerability of U.S. shipping to German U-boats was still fresh in the public's mind. To maintain a "dependable" merchant fleet for the next "national emergency," Congress restricted coastal shipping between U.S. ports to U.S.-built vessels owned by U.S. citizens; related laws require U.S. crews. The Jones Act may or may not have achieved its original purpose, but shipping businesses and labor unions love the way it shields them from foreign competition. Ah, the old Law of Unintended Consequences. Today the Jones Act stands accused of hindering the gulf oil spill cleanup. Republicans say that President Obama should have used his emergency power to waive the law - as President George W. Bush did after Hurricane Katrina - but hesitated to do so in deference to organized labor. The Obama administration denies it. "There has not been any problem with this," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said last week. Who's right? The administration's critics So then why were the Dutch cleaner-uppers banned? That doesn't mean that the Jones Act is harmless. To the contrary, like other protectionist laws, it increases the price of goods and services to American consumers - though how much is a matter of debate, because foreign vessels would still have to comply with other laws and regulations that add to their costs. The Jones Act was an issue in the May 22 House special election in Hawaii: Republican Charles Djou and one of his two Democratic opponents charged that it benefited a handful of ship lines and unions at the expense of ordinary Hawaiians. Mr. Djou is preparing a bill to exempt Hawaii. If FedEx can move cargo across the country in European-made Airbuses, why can't a boat built in, say, Canada, ship wheat from Los Angeles to Honolulu? The Jones Act lobby crushed the last attempt at reform back in the 1990s. May the next one meet with more success. |
| Posted by:Bobby |
| #3 The problem with skimmers: They all quote the of amount water they can collect. None of them will tell you the amount of oil that they have actually recovered. If the size of the spill is 160,000 bbls. and they could recover 100 bbls. of oil per/day (which they can't) they should be done in about 4 1/2 years. Kevin Kostner at his current rate of recovery should be done in about 1240 years. |
| Posted by: junkiron 2010-06-25 20:42 |
| #2 According to Victor Davis Hanson Bush suspended the Jones act during the Katrina hurricane. I'm not supporting the law (don't know the details) but a President can't and shouldn't hide behind that sort of thing. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2010-06-25 18:47 |
| #1 So then why were the Dutch cleaner-uppers banned? I reckon because they might have been effective at diffusing the problem. With a crisis averted and no major portion of our economy taken over by the Feds, the crisis would have been wasted. And we can't have that, now can we? |
| Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats 2010-06-25 15:05 |