Joe Biden has framed his $6 trillion-plus ‘Build Back Better’ agenda as intended to speed up America’s recovery from the Covid pandemic, rebuild infrastructure, address climate change and invest in children and families. It’s about ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’ – a word he repeated 46 times in a congressional address.
But Biden’s ambitions for renewal at home could never be a purely domestic project. In his pursuit of a ‘foreign policy for the middle class’, he has melded economic policy with national security. Jobs and infrastructure at home are nice on their own, but using them for advantage in the global superpower competition is even nicer.
Biden is committed to strengthening America’s economic base and expanding its industrial capacity to bolster Washington’s position in trade talks with Beijing.
