Farewell plastic cups, hello wind turbines. Joe Biden on Wednesday will inaugurate a construction site he believes exemplifies the promise of his economic policy: a plus for battling climate change while highlighting the country’s industrial renaissance.
After a stopover Tuesday at the Grand Canyon which focused on the environment, the US president turns his attention to jobs and the economy, key bread-and-butter issues in the ongoing campaign for the White House in 2024.
The 80-year-old, who is running for a second term, will tout the groundbreaking of a factory manufacturing wind turbine towers for the Arcosa group — and the generation of 250 new jobs.
The project converts a facility that had been making disposable tableware and other plastic products until the operation went bankrupt.
‘Bidenomics’
Biden’s policies are “ushering in a clean energy and manufacturing boom,” the White House said in a statement.
And yet for many, the Democrat’s economic policies — the “Bidenomics” that the president’s communications team is trying to bring into the mainstream in a positive light — remain murky.
Biden is struggling to bring Americans up to speed on two major bills he shepherded through Congress and signed into law one year ago: the CHIPS and Science Act, which pumps huge funding into semiconductor manufacturing, research and development; and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a landmark law for megaprojects boosting green investment.
“America invented semiconductors -– and today, they power everything from cell phones to cars to refrigerators,” Biden said of the all-important electronic components, in a statement marking the one-year anniversary of CHIPS.
“But over time, the United States went from producing nearly 40 percent of the world’s chips to just over 10 percent, making our economy vulnerable to global supply chain disruptions. The CHIPS and Science Act aims to change that.”
The law follows a formula: pour in subsidies and offer tax incentives to encourage domestic production and development of both electric cars and future semiconductors.
The policy of unashamed industrial sovereignty is making some of Washington’s traditional allies bristle.
Biden, focused on domestic priorities, has waived them off. He needs to win back portions of the working-class vote captured by his predecessor Donald Trump, who appealed to large segments of blue-collar workers who were laid off or otherwise felt left behind by globalization.
Diplomatically the priority is to stand up to China on a multitude of fronts: military, economic and technological.
Hundreds of billions
The White House claims that since Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act — so named because a post-pandemic America was buckling in the face of soaring prices — companies have made some $110 billion in clean energy investments in the United States.
And CHIPS has led to companies pouring more than $166 billion into manufacturing of semiconductors and other electronics, the Biden administration added.
Such astronomical figures, however, do not automatically boost Biden’s election advantage.
The Democrat, handicapped by his age in the eyes of voters, knows his re-election destiny will be played out as much in the courts as in America’s factories.
While keen to talk up his economic policies, the US president has remained stubbornly silent on the legal perils of his White House predecessor Donald Trump, who is the clear frontrunner in the race for the Republican Party’s 2024 nomination.
Polls, which admittedly carry little sway 15 months before the election, so far show the two rivals neck and neck, despite mounting indictments against the Republican billionaire.
