“Infrastructure Week” is by now a hackneyed joke. The New York Times reported over a year ago that pols and pundits inside the Beltway had come to “recognize any mention of infrastructure-themed events as a catchall joke symbolizing any substantive — if pie-in-the-sky — policy objective destined to go nowhere.” Under a Trump administration anyway.
Reacting to the Biden campaign’s release of its economic plan on Thursday, the Washington Post’s Greg Sargent tweets, “If woke progressives and Democrats who supposedly only care about affluent ‘knowledge workers’ have lost touch with the Real Concerns of the white working class, why are they the ones offering the most robust agenda for rebuilding US manufacturing?”
Former Vice President Joe Biden’s plan includes:
- Use the full power of the federal government to rebuild U.S. domestic manufacturing capacity of our supply chains for critical products.
- Implement a comprehensive approach to ensure the U.S. has the critical supplies it needs for future crises and its national security
- Work with allies to protect their supply chains and to open new markets to U.S. exports.
Among other goals, Biden wants to leverage the government’s buying power for “$400 billion over four years on materials and services made in the United States, as well as $300 billion on U.S.-based research and development involving electric cars, artificial intelligence and similar technologies.”
In a 100-day supply chain review, Biden expects to “require federal agencies to buy only medical supplies and other goods manufactured in the United States,” as well, as to eliminate loopholes that allow procurement officials and contractors to skirt ‘Buy American’ clauses.”
Biden’s moves have former Trump adviser Steve Bannon accusing him of stealing Trump’s 2016 playbook. But Biden may instead be cutting the knees out from under Trump’s “conservative populism.” Like much else in his life, Trump talks a good game and does not deliver. Assuming he wins in November, Biden at least arrives with a plan.
Sargent writes:
The pandemic offered an opening to marshal federal power. But Trump punted on deploying the Defense Production Act: His main mobilization was to marshal his magical lying powers to make coronavirus disappear.
More broadly, as president, Trump fully embraced GOP plutocracy with a massive corporate tax giveaway and an effort to gut health coverage for millions, which continues even amid pandemic conditions.
Biden’s website adds that he plans to actually invoke the Defense Production Act (DPA) to secure needed emergency supplies and to rebuild stockpiles, something Donald Trump invoked minimally and only under political pressure. Biden’s plan distances itself from “the more neoliberal and trade-friendly instincts of centrist Democrats,” Sargent writes. The plan shows the influence of Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s “economic patriotism” in its development.
Inasmuch as Republicans offer anything other than fear mongering to attack Biden, they will have (and do have) trouble making a radical leftist out of Biden. His plans reveal an investment of thought in delivering, not just in promising. He released a $1.3 trillion infrastructure plan back in November. His $700 billion “Buy American” plan puts him on record as promoting “a New Deal-like economic agenda” that he will contrast with Trump’s faltering attempts to roll-start American manufacturing with bluster, press events, and infrastructure weeks.
“It’s not sufficient to build back. We have to build back better,” Biden said in Dunmore, Pa., promising to “ensure all Americans are in on the deal.”
Assuming Democrats take control of the Senate out of Mitch McConnell’s hands (and don’t present it to Sen. Chuck Schumer), we may actually see an infrastructure week next year. Although, it might be wise to give it a snappier name.
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
For The Win, 3rd Edition is ready for download. Request a copy of my free countywide GOTV mechanics guide at ForTheWin.us. This is what winning looks like.
Note: The pandemic will upend standard field tactics in 2020. If enough promising “improvisations” come my way, perhaps I can issue a COVID-19 supplement.