"EXCEPTION to Free Trade: National Defense."
We are talking armor plate here. Armor plate is defense. We do not contract the production of armor plate to China. Therefor any problem with the production of armor plate is not a result of our trade policies.
And you manifestly prove my point beyond doubt, when I observed about recognition of that free trade exception being required: And while some libertarians say they also do, in fact, it is more often lip service. They never seem to see the connections between core industries and defense.
This is not an isolated example. The steel shortfall is because of an overall steel industrial collapse that the globalists refuse to acknowledge. They are not the ones familiar with these industries, so they cavalierly wave their arms, and say, "they must be inefficient, or obsolete" and the Chinese are cheaper, hence more efficient. Shut em down! That includes the defense capacity. Without the industrial margin for error and surge capacity beyond minimal Xlinton-era defense orders, the steel armor capacity withered away. There is no industrial-infrastructure protection program in place. The Chinese are cherry-picking industries to be able to defeat us. And we have a bunch of idealogues unaware that these commercial transactions (conducted by PLA proxies) are not free trade.