REPUBLICANS AND NATIONAL SECURITY

To be a Republican seems to mean that you never have enough national security.  It was not always so and Republicans generally were against national Federal programs.  Even after WW-II there was a lot of resistance to the Federal Government doing national programs.  This impasse was broken by President Isenhower who claimed that we needed the interstate highway system for national security.

Since then, national security has joined interstate commerce that remains out there as an excuse for doing any Federal national program. By and large, the use of national security has involved the acquisition of armaments.  Even though the big ticket items like aircraft carriers and B-1 Bombers were not decisive in places like the Korean War and Vietnam War, we never seem to have enough of these or the ones they claim to need to be replaced.

President Trump has leaned on this national security button hard time.  He claims we need a tariff on steel and aluminum to maintain a steel and aluminum industry in the U.S. (Even now we produce over 80 million tons of steel a year and even though Canada can produce these cheaper than we can.  There are several reasons for this but one is that U.S. iron ore is degrading in iron percentage and is becoming less and less economic to mine.)  Can you imagine a situation where Canada becomes our enemy and cuts us off?  After all, we have a positive trade balance with Canada.  But here is the biggest laugh of all.  We import 100%, let me repeat that, 100% of the ore to make aluminum (the ore is called bauxite and we haven't produced any bauxite ore for decades).  Actually, national security has nothing to do with the tariffs and, of course, they are just an excuse.

Tariffs boomerang around.  Take steel, we import steel in Canda with the 25% tariff so U.S. firms can raise their prices.  At any rate, whether it is Canadian steel or domestic, the price of goods made from it will increase in price for the U.S. consumer.  Not only that, but goods we export to Canada will also increase in price because of tariffs making them more expensive for consumers there.  The result could well be fewer goods made from steel and may result in putting us back, economically, to where we began, though consumers will pay more in both countries.

I urge you to read the entire article by Greg Ip (March 9, 2018) "The Flaw In Trump's National Security Tariffs Logic.*

* https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-flaw-in-trumps-national-security-tariffs-logic-1520612895
https://www.forbes.com/sites/danikenson/2018/03/01/trumps-national-security-protectionism-will-open-pandoras-box/2/#75edaa9e3ffe