Today’s Made in America Announcement, Analyzed

May 12, 2023

Why the Biden administration’s new guidance matters.

The Roosevelt Rundown features our top stories of the week.


Why Biden’s Domestic Content Incentives Matter

President Biden’s industrial policy strategy is in full swing.

And today, his administration took another big step in ensuring that as much green production happens in America as possible.

In new guidance released today—and explained here by Roosevelt’s Todd N. Tucker—the Treasury Department announced an “adder” to the Inflation Reduction Act’s subsidies for clean energy investment: a 10 percent bonus subsidy if the products used are deemed “Made in America.”

The next step, Roosevelt President and CEO Felicia Wong argues: “sync up the domestic content requirements with the administration’s all-of-government equity plans to lift up and invest in regions and communities left behind by past public investments.”

“[W]ith this approach to a new industrial strategy, and with the IRA specifically, we have an opportunity to do one better than the New Deal, by ensuring that what’s Made in America is made by all of America.”

Read more about today’s announcement from Todd N. Tucker.

 

Red Nation, Blue Nation

Political pundits often discuss the differences between red and blue states.

But Michael Podhorzer, former political director of the AFL-CIO, argues that the US is more like two nations—one “born with slavery and with a very theocratic, illiberal bent,” and the other “committed to a more commercial, innovative, secular culture.”

On a new episode of How to Save a Country, Podhorzer talks with hosts Felicia Wong and Michael Tomasky about the historical origins of this split, the ramifications for electoral strategy, and the role the Supreme Court has played in hardening these divisions.

Listen now, and follow for new podcast episodes every Thursday.

 

What We’re Reading

Free the Fed’s Bank Examiners before Disaster Strikes Again [by Roosevelt fellow Todd Phillips]Barron’s

Could $3,500 “Baby Bonds” Help End Poverty in America? [feat. Roosevelt senior fellows William Darity Jr. and Darrick Hamilton] [paywall]Wall Street Journal

How to Think about Green Industrial PolicyNew York Times

US Aims to Turn Middle-American Cities into New Tech Hubs with $500 Million Investment – CNBC