On a long plane flight back from London (amazing city, great weather this past week), so let me give some thoughts.
First is starting with the things, that I and many others DID vote for:
1. Immigration - A++
2. DEI removal - A
3. Trying to stop endless wars and spending - B+ (he's trying, but its hard)
4. Reduce waste and fraud in government - A-. Very sloppy at many points, but absolutely the right direction.
5. Removing regulations - not done yet, this HAS to come fast
6. Reducing the debt/deficit - he's tracking to it. It's also hard and he has to go after entitlements, which he will get vilified for - they are starting with Medicaid
7. Make even more progressive the tax code (removing tax on tips, remove carried interest deduction)
So, if he did just those things, he would be crushing it.
To answer your question, you have to ask the follow up question, "what makes America 'great'". Does being a Manufacturing power make us "great"? My answer is "very much depends on the sector".
For example - making furniture, clothes, toys, TVs, who cares. I want it from the cheapest/best country, esp. as this helps the working class afford a far better lifestyle for a given income level.
I think design and innovation is where we MUST win. For example, where was AI revolutionalized - HERE. Cloud computing - HERE. SaaS - HERE. Med-Tech/Pharma/Vaccine innovation - HERE. Oncology breadthrough - here. GLP-1s - hERE. Leading surgical practices - HERE. Financial services and innovation - HERE. EV Cars such as Rivian and Tesla - HERE. Oil/extraction / Fracking - here. Solar - HERE. Nuclear - HERE.
We do that - and do it exceptionally well.
You do though get into potentially risks and choke points - chip manufacturing/fab - done in Taiwan (90% of high-end chips). API/Molecules, critical for pharmaceuticals - India. This is where I want to see
diversification. If China takes over Taiwan (and they have some historical claim and it is 90 miles from their border). Yes, we need to bring that here.
Now the left will say, "Well - that was the IRA". Then you have the problem - "well, sure, decent idea and TERRIBLE execution." You know who makes that point? Ezra Klein on the left. See this one that just dropped on the Ben Shapiro show:
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Ezra Klein literally wrote a book on how liberalism and multi-culturalism has failed government objectives. You should watch the above, it shows how important #5 is and how Democrats are starting to see it.
Your focus is on Manufacturing. So how important is it that we manufacture automotive sub-assemblies, components or washing machines in the U.S.? My answer is, "sure - good jobs, but not critical." We happen to make a lot of them.
Final assembly should be done in the U.S.
My view is that where we SHOULD excel is in high automation / high innovation manufacturing and assembly. Do we need to have EVERY ITEM ON THE 12+ layer Bill of Material done in the U.S. - no. Do we need to mine the raw Aluminum and Iron? Only to the extent to lower raw input costs - if they are already low, ok. if canada wants to give us cheap oil and lumber - fantastic. Let them. If they tarrif us on those, they are just dumb - it's why, theirs along with the EU - have been in dump economically for decades versus the U.S.
So, policy prescriptions:
1. Make community college free for certain trades - electrical, welding, machine. Why are Data Centers expensive to put up? Over regulation, land/lease permitting and lack of electrical crews. I know this first hand.
2. Adopt the Elon goal - get the EU and us to zero tarriffs. If they don't, fine - then place a tarriff on selective industries and price points. Example? Any Auto not final assembled in the U.S. and above $50K gets a 25% tarriff. That, like the SALT cap, hits the coasts.
3. Keep the USMCA - but if any U.S. company seeks to shut down a line, shift and move to Mexico, they get hit with tarriffs for that car/line that gets moved. They get tax breaks if they re-patriate them to the U.S.
On competitiveness - in the services side, we are dominant. Part of our issue on the manufacturing side, is that outside of Tesla, Rivians or say Jeeps (which are still on the Mercedes legacy platform), US cars lack in design and features that European cars do. Audis and BMWs are cool cars. Ferrari too. Volkswagen is dropping market share for a reason. You see very few Volvos. Saabs (I had a few - loved them) are non-existent. Bigger SUVs / Trucks don't really have a place in the EU, except maybe in rural areas. That's a lot of car to ship too.
Do all of the things above, we will have Bessent's 3%+ GDP growth (or more), be focused on the right industries, drop inflation, and also curtail government spending and growth, again part of his plan.
There you go.
