The Jones Act primary purpose is to protect American seamen, American jobs, US shipyards, and national security. If the Jones Act was eliminated it would cost the US military billions of dollars as most of sealift support for military operations. Also national security would be at a greater risk and threat because all waterways including rivers, ports, etc would be much more difficult to control. Yes the Jones Act has increased cost as it is more expensive to build and operate a ship using a US shipyard and US crew however without the Jones Act, like other countries that dissolved cabotage laws, we would see these industries go away. In fact studies of countries that eliminated the Jones Act found costs did not go down and service was eroded. The military can not cost effectively build new ships with the latest top secret technology without US shipyards. I agree in some cases such as cruises the Jones Act may too much such as Hawaii but its hard to separate for certain areas. Also US airlines fall under the Jones Act so Delta, American, etc would also be at risk of going out of business.
