Why Ronald Reagan supported the Jones Act

With each new Congress, the perennial attackers of the Jones Act come out of the woodwork.

Passed after World War I as a maritime component of our national defense, this act required that all cargo moved by water between two American ports be moved on ships that are American owned, built, repaired, and crewed by Americans. Jones Act critics, predominantly free trade economists, view the Jones Act as “crony capitalism”. They argue that the Jones Act has no real impact on our national security because modern conflicts like the one in Kuwait, deliver troops and supplies in airplanes.