mandag 12. april 2021

Op-ed: Biden is securing America’s place in the world and challenging China with his bold domestic agenda

It is hard to overstate the audaciousness of President Joe Biden’s first 100 days in office, which will be marked April 30. Behind it lies a presidential ambition to recharge America while at the same time improving U.S. odds in its escalating contest with China. Biden’s boldness can be measured most graphically by the numbers: the $4 trillion and counting that he hopes to generate to finance an American pandemic rebound, a surge in U.S. jobs and growth, and a mountain of national infrastructure investments (defining “infrastructure” liberally).

Biden made sure no one missed the connection to China when he rolled out his infrastructure spending proposal this week, which he called “the single largest investment in American jobs since World War II.”

Asked Biden, “Do you think China is waiting around to invest in this digital infrastructure or in research and development? I promise you they are not waiting. But they’re counting on American democracy to be too slow, too limited, and too divided to keep pace … We have to show the world. Much more important we have to show ourselves that democracy works. That we can come together on the big things. It’s the United States of America for God’s sake!”