Let's talk about how the US Navy may build boats outside of the US.... - Belle of the Ranch

Well, howdy there Internet people. It's Belle again. So, today we're going to talk about how the US Navy may build boats outside of the US.

In what might be the most overt and stunning turnaround when it comes to Trump's claims that he would reshore good paying blue-collar jobs and create manufacturing jobs, Trump's now fired Secretary of the Navy announced that the US Navy was looking into building its ships overseas.

The Secretary was at a media roundtable at C Airspace 2026 in DC. Shortly thereafter, the Secretary of the Navy became the former Secretary of the Navy. But that probably has to do with something else because the idea of outsourcing ship building isn't limited to him.

The now former Secretary’s statement follows a comment from the Chief of Naval Operations about a week earlier at an Atlantic Council conference when he said, "I don't see any future where I don't leverage foreign shipyards and foreign country skills and capacity to help me get up on plan with my ship building initiatives."

The CNO's comments seem limited to repairs and maintenance and construction of auxiliary ships. The Secretary of the Navy's comments don't.

It looks like the main contenders for foreign ship builders would be Japan and South Korea. Both countries have already had ship building companies successfully work on MRO contracts for the US Navy. Those are maintenance, repair, and operations contracts. They stop short of building the Navy ships.

Trump is asking for $1.5 trillion in the fiscal year 2027 Department of Defense budget. $65.8 billion of that would be for ship building. It certainly appears that large amounts of that cash would be sent overseas.

But wait, I thought trade deficits were bad and I thought we were going to build a great golden fleet and create a bunch of jobs here at home. That disappeared faster than the DOGE checks and the tariff rebate checks he promised.

Okay, so the obvious question is what was it all for? Why did prices go up if it wasn't to create American jobs? The answer is simple, and he told Americans repeatedly, but they didn't think about it and simply fell for the meme. He wants tariff revenue to replace income taxes.

While that might sound good to you at first glance, the reality is that it would shift the burden for America's expenses from the rich to the poor. The tariffs get passed on to the consumer so you still pay the tax you would have paid in income taxes. You just pay it at the cash register when you buy food or goods.

Who really gets to pay less? The wealthy who have income that doesn't get spent on goods. Passing the taxes on to you doesn't create jobs for you. It doesn't lower your prices. It doesn't lower the amount of taxes you'd pay. It lets you pay the taxes for your betters. Those people who are too well-bred, well-funded, and politically connected to pay.

Trump is so America First, he wants the US Navy to be the first customer of another country's ship builders. So much for those good paying union jobs.

Anyway, it's just a thought. Y'all have a good day.