President Biden in North Carolina kicking off the Investing in America Tour (Photo/Newsbreak)
By Karen Stokes
Tuesday, President Biden kicked off a three-week long, Administration-wide ‘Investing in America’ tour with a visit to Wolfspeed, a manufacturer of semiconductors, that recently announced a $5 billion investment to expand their North Carolina operations and create 1,800 good-paying jobs.
“Wolfspeed is making an investment that will further strengthen the supply chain. The largest investment in manufacturing in North Carolina history,” President Biden said.
Over the next three weeks, President Biden, Vice President Harris, First Lady Jill Biden, Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff, White House officials, and members of the President’s Cabinet will travel to over 20 states to highlight how President Biden’s economic agenda is unleashing a manufacturing boom, strengthening U.S. supply chains, creating good-paying jobs, and expanding economic opportunity across America.
“They’re going to be highlighting that the President has promised the American people that he’s going to build an economy from the bottom up and middle out and how the presidents Investing in American agenda which includes historic investments from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Chips and Science Act, the bipartisan infrastructure Law and the American Rescue Plan are helping Americans. said Heather Boushey, White House Council of Economic Advisors.
During the visit, President Biden announced that over $435 billion in private sector manufacturing commitments have been made since he took office. That includes over $200 billion in clean energy, electric vehicle, and battery investments, over $200 billion in semiconductors, and about $15 billion in biomanufacturing investments.
In 16 states, companies announced the single largest private sector investment in that state’s history since President Biden took office.
The Tour will also highlight what’s at stake if MAGA Republicans in Congress get their way and repeal the Inflation Reduction Act.
North Carolina is among the states that stand to lose the most private sector investment under MAGA Republicans’ reckless proposals.
North Carolina has seen a boom of over $16 billion in private sector investment commitments since President Biden took office – building everything from semiconductors and batteries to electric vehicles and fiber optic cable.
Because of the Bipartisan Infrastructure law, $4.5 billion in federal funding has been announced for 158 infrastructure projects across North Carolina – rebuilding the state’s roads and bridges and expanding opportunity in every corner of the state.
“The president wants to make sure that the United States has the capacity to produce semiconductors, batteries, and fiber optic cable. This is critical to so many things we use, like mobile phones,” Boushey said. “We learned over the past few years just how important access to the supply chain is. When there were shortages with semiconductors it meant that all kinds of manufacturers couldn’t make the things American demanded like build new cars and prices went up for consumers.”
“I’ve never been more optimistic about our country’s future. We just need to remember who we are, the United States of America. There is nothing, nothing beyond our capacity when we act together virtually nothing,” President Biden said.