“ In his first term, President Trump claimed that he’d revitalize U.S. manufacturing, but he failed to do so; there’s no reason to believe that doubling down on the same, failed policies will do so now. There is a better way — and that comes with real federal investments into the American economy.
We’ve been down this road before, and it didn’t end well.
President Trump is right to say that domestic manufacturing matters. Some goods are integral to national and economic security, so we all have an interest in ensuring reliable production within our borders or friendshored.
Take the example of semiconductors, many thinner than a wisp of hair, now in everything from cars to refrigerators to cellphones. While innovators in Silicon Valley invented this technology, by the time Trump left office in 2021, most chips were made overseas. When Covid hit, the combination of lockdowns that shuttered factories around the world and higher demand for consumer goods as people were stuck at home led to a global chip shortage affecting 169 separate industries, which, in turn, contributed to rising prices.
While tariffs make foreign goods more expensive, our approach instead sought to improve domestic production. By investing public dollars in infrastructure and other essential services, we brought capital into critical sectors. And we made sure that those investments could thrive and that they would deliver good, middle-class jobs.
This economic development strategy acknowledges the real-world challenge with building up a manufacturing industry in the United States. Firms need infrastructure, such as roads and access to affordable electricity, an ecosystem of other manufacturers, including suppliers, as well as competitors to keep them on their toes and build a community of best practices, and a pipeline of skilled workers who, in turn, need homes and schools and child care for their families.
All of this is a distraction from the fleecing of America by giving $4.6 trillion in tax cuts to the wealthiest.
This is why Congress passed, and President Biden signed into law, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Combined, these laws catalyzed a trillion dollars in new private investment in clean energy, semiconductors and other advanced manufacturing. By crowding in investment into sectors that matter through both supply and demand side policies and addressing market failures, we saw a revitalization of U.S. manufacturing in sectors in which there’s both need and a potential to thrive.
But President Trump doesn’t get it. He thinks that capricious on-again/off-again tariffs will lead to investment and growth. But no one can plan sound investments amid this chaos. Further, he has no plan to improve domestic industry. The lack of even the concept of a plan is showing up in the data: already, there are indications that manufacturers have scaled back their intentions by $57 billion. ”
http://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/trump-liberation-day-tariffs-us-economy-rcna198940
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