Democratic Party presidential candidate Joe Biden recently revealed his ambitious "Build Back Better" economic nationalism plan that focuses on creating five million jobs; investing $700 billion on research and infrastructure and buying more American-made products.
The Biden campaign describes Build Back Better as Joe Biden's "Jobs and Economic Recovery Plan for Working Families." It also assails President Donald Trump for "pursuing economic policies that rewarded wealth overwork and corporations over working families." It points out too many Black and Latino Americans, Native Americans, immigrants and women have never been welcomed as full participants in the economy.
Amid the economic paralysis wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, the campaign says Biden has a plan to create millions of good-paying jobs. Biden will give America's working families the tools, choices, and freedom they need to build back better.
The Biden campaign said all of this will start with a real strategy to deal with the raging COVID-19 pandemic. It rightly points out the U.S. can't solve the massive unemployment crisis until it solves the public health crisis created by the pandemic.
Build Back Better is the first of four major Biden economic proposals to be revealed by next week. These proposals will comprise the economic backbone of the incoming Biden administration.
Biden revealed Build Back Better Thursday during a speech at a metalworks factory at his childhood hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. The first part of Build Back Better proposal is a $400 billion fund set aside by the federal government to purchase American-made products such as steel, cement, concrete to repair and rebuild America's decaying infrastructure.
The second part is a $300 billion investment in research for new technologies identified as key to future American economic growth. Among these critical technologies are electric vehicles, artificial intelligence (AI), and 5G.
Build Back Better will demand new tax breaks and credits for small manufacturers, including businesses run by minorities and women. Biden will also impose penalties on companies that take federal money and then move their investments overseas.
"If I am fortunate enough to be elected president, I'll be laser-focused on working families, the middle-class families I came from here in Scranton, not the wealthy investor class," said Biden during his nationally televised speech.
"They don't need me (the wealthy investor class). But working families do. We must reward work as much as we rewarded wealth, but now we just reward excessive wealth."
Biden also went to bat for American manufacturing, which remains in decline as manufacturing jobs have fled overseas for countries with cheaper production costs.
Political pundits see Build Back Better as Biden's attempt to weaken Trump's only consistent advantage over him in the polls. Americans still consider Trump a better manager of the economy than Biden, albeit by declining margins.
The raging COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the American economy to the extent economists forecast a 30% plunge in GDP for the second quarter. Trump is taking the heat for this economic collapse.
