Regardless of political affiliation, recent American presidents commonly say that the nation needs to win back manufacturing jobs lost to overseas relocation. “Where is it inscribed that America cannot reclaim its position as the world’s manufacturing hub?” queried President Biden recently. He has pushed for policies that penalize corporations for moving jobs abroad and that incentivize job repatriation. Biden’s predecessor Donald Trump pursued a similar objective with different means, modifying the tax code to encourage companies to bring back profits earned internationally and imposing tariffs to protect domestically produced goods. Despite their ideological differences, both presidents share a similar view on infrastructure and its capacity to create jobs in construction and related sectors. Trump proposed a $1 trillion infrastructure initiative to get Americans back to work as the Covid pandemic waned; Biden enacted a program allocating approximately $550 billion toward local infrastructure projects.
