The Biden economy
New manufacturing construction is growing fast and is on pace to be close to $190 billion this year. In the entire decade of the 2010s, it was less than $100 billion. This growth comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Infrastructure and Jobs Act (also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law) and the CHIPS and Science Act. The economy has added more than 13 million jobs since President Joe Biden took office, including almost 800,000 manufacturing jobs.
It is also worth noting that government investment and growth in manufacturing are strongest in Republican-dominated states, even though not a single Republican voted for the Inflation Reduction Act that funds such investment. Republicans continue to try to gut that initiative. (Republican-dominated states stand to get about $337 billion in investment, Democratic-dominated states, about $183 billion).
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Perhaps you’ve noticed that the I-95 corridor is open again in Philadelphia, proving what effective government can do. Perhaps government is not always our “enemy” after all.
Thank you, President Biden and Gov. Shapiro.
Kurt Lauenstein
Greensboro
The Speaker Ban
Regarding Leslie Boney’s column (“The new threats to free speech on campus,” June 27):
It’s not lost on any discerning individual that your articles and opinions concerning threats to free speech allude to the premise that the conservatives, i.e., Republicans, are the bogeymen. Those who pushed the Speaker Ban Law in North Carolina were the Democratic majority-controlled legislature, and a Democratic governor, Dan K. Moore.
You could fill volumes with what the media’s bias chooses to ignore, when it doesn’t fit their narrative.
Tom Ozment
Jamestown
Same difference
Years ago, I coached my daughter in recreation league youth sports.
Suppose one year, in the tournament for the second and third grade girls, my team showed up with a girl, 18 years old, in the 12th grade? I wonder what would happen.
I’d imagine the administrators of the league, as well as the opposing coaches and parents, would be a little upset with that. Why? Because it would give our team a huge physical advantage.
If asked about it, first, I would have said that this person identifies as a third grader, and despite the fact she was obviously a much older player, it would damage her psychologically to not be allowed to play. And further, I’d say anyone who dared to question her playing was the problem, and they were putting her life in danger.
Does any of that sound absurd? That is the exact same thing that is going on with the ludicrous idea that males can compete against females in sports. It seems so basic that males and females should have their own leagues, in the same way kids in second grade should not be in the same league as kids in 12th grade.
But some feel there should not be such separations.
Fred Pearlman
Greensboro
Ladder of success
As student after student passes through Greensboro, entering with bed risers and leaving with a degree, we must realize what a privilege it is to dedicate approximately 17 years to learning. While it is impossible to say for some and easy for others, not having to worry about where your next meal is coming from, being so focused on the life that college and a higher education bring, is one of the greatest things that living in America can bring you.
We are constantly climbing, taking only the most preferable opportunities, and the ladder to success, some might say, is virtually never-ending. There is always more to be sought out. But what a privilege it is to have a ladder.
I urge you to put yourself in the shoes of someone below the line of poverty, in a country where there are no choices, where it is do or do not eat.
You can help, though. We must urge our congressional leaders to support the Reinforcing Education Accountability in Development (READ) Act. The Borgen Project’s website makes it very easy to find, email and/or call them. The goal of this act is to place educational systems in struggling nations, so that they are eventually able to sustain themselves and become new markets for the United States. It only takes a few seconds to make the difference.
Savannah Mathews
Raleigh