> The US still lacks a lot of the specialized vessels, ports and manufacturing capacity.

Maybe we should put the $1.2B into that sort of thing, then?

One could do that, but one would have to be careful that it does not end up lost in corruption. Contracts and bidding, where the private sector carries the full financial risk, and where the state only pays after complete and satisfactory delivery, should in theory work. However, the question then is if such circumstances could be set up that are still attractive to some party in the private sector.

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