Biden’s $4 Trillion Industrial Policy Faces Bigger Hurdles Than Politics
The price tag for the infrastructure and manufacturing push could be too high for Republicans, but it’s economic forces that are the real obstacle.
President Biden and his economic team are about to test whether Americans can accept a more interventionist role for government in the economy. Now that his $1.9 trillion Covid rescue plan has cleared Congress, Biden is gearing up to roll out a “Build Back Better” plan that envisions spending at least $4 trillion over 10 years on infrastructure and strategic industries such as semiconductors, renewable energy, and electric vehicles. He promises that government action will not just generate millions of jobs and help the U.S. compete with China but also reduce inequality and help battle climate change.
The timing for a new, muscular U.S. industrial policy might never be better. The pandemic and anxieties over the perceived growing threat from China have focused minds in Washington, fostering a rare bipartisan consensus on the need for measures to secure supply chains for semiconductors and other strategic goods such as surgical masks.