Forrest, trees:

"The 30-year shipbuilding plan would average $34.1 billion per year—an amount that would be 'unprecedented since World War II,' the CBO said in its analysis on Thursday." https://about.bgov.com/news/biden-confronts-1-trillion-cost-for-trumps-500-ship-navy-plan/

If the plan to build the Navy up is unprecedented for the U.S. since WWII, consider that the level of Chinese commercial and military shipbuilding is just plain old unprecedented. That is, in the history of the world, China's shipbuilding enterprise is unprecedented.

China represents 40 percent of all global commercial shipbuilding. And military? If you want to see how quickly this has shifted, here's a snapshot via IISS.

"But the U.S. Navy has way more tonnage!"

Sure, because that's a static figure that isn't rapidly changing.

And you don't get to have your cake and eat it, here. The same people who point to the tonnage figure also tend to point to the vulnerability of aircraft carriers, which makes, what, like a quarter of U.S. gross warship tonnage?

Why "Unprecedented"?

Because the global maritime environment is unprecedented. Consider: According to the American Economic Review in 1920, the total commercial tonnage in the world was around 50.1 million tons.

Today, according to the UN, its 2.05 billion.

And for being the world's largest economy, the U.S. has a little more than a quarter the commercial tonnage China has, and as we've noted, they represent 40 percent of the world's commercial shipbuilding. The nearest competitor are Korea and Japan with about 25% each.

(Which speaks to the need for close relationships with allies.)

So what's the point? China's shipbuilding dwarfs our own, and their Navy is on track to overtake ours in tonnage if current trends continue, and there's no reason to believe it wont.

"Well, China is just a regional power."

And ain't that a f***ing problem for us, since their military is all concentrated in a region we've deemed part of our core National interests. Also in the part of the world from whence the last military attack on our territory emanated.

So we can hem and haw over a trillion dollars over 30 years (can we get a read of what percentage of projected Federal expenditures that would be?), but we also have to weigh what the costs of allowing Chinese global maritime primacy would be. I suspect we'd not love the regime.

I'd rather spend it on programs for the poor and needy than on ships:

Wish granted: We'll spend more than a trillion in 18 months of just Medicaid, which is $613.8 billion a year and growing as of 2019.

US ports and shipping represents $5.4 trillion annually in our economy.

Humbug.

Fin.