Scrap The Jones Act

In 1920 a congressman from Washington State proposed, passed a law through congress known as the Merchant Marine Act of 1920, aka The Jones Act. What the Jones Act does is requires any goods going from one US port to another port in the US to be shipped on a ship made in the US and captained  by an American.

The idea initially was to promote US jobs in shipbuilding and crews. Of course in the modern era something different is happening. In the modern world not many ships are built in the US anymore. So what happens now is you can ship from one port to another on trains not built in the US, you can ship on planes not built in the US, you can even have a truck going from one port to another driven by someone from another country and built in another country. But you still can't have an item put on a cargo ship in New Orleans and have it dropped off in a port in New York unless that ship was built in the US, flying a US flag, and crewed by Americans.

The US council of economic advisers has found that this law costs each job gained $250,000 per job.  About 1 billion dollars a year. So unless each of those jobs pays more than  $250,000k per year, this is a loss that taxpayers are covering.

If the Republicans in office want to cut unnecessary laws and spending, how about cutting this $1 Billion a year expense instead of trying to cancel Sesame Street? Because rich lobbyists want to keep it around, that's why.