Two Parties Agree on Competition with China: “The Bill that United the Senate”

@ASoulAFire @JaniceOCG @handmaidstale__ We need unity like this to avoid #TheComingTyranny.  @mikiebarb & @SangerNYT of @TheDailyNYT @nytimes walk us thru a united time in the Senate over competition w/China.

Environmental catastrophe is some of what motivated the destruction of the U.S. in Gilead.  Different views on how to address the plunging birth rate is behind the strategy of forcing women into the position of breeder, under the title “handmaid.” 

It seems to me that the way to avoid such tragically harsh approaches to solving a problem is to altogether avoid the problem – meaning address global warming in a serious way. 

This has been an unpleasant week if you’ve been paying attention to how two Democrats are threatening to derail Biden’s “Build Back Better” plan.  It seems the two dominant parties can’t agree on anything – and the Democrats alone, are divided.  The image of a broken America looms large. 

Yet I recall a few months ago when the two sides came together quite easily, and with little fanfare.  It was around the issue of competition with China.  The story was striking to me back in June because I was thinking about how we can’t address global warming, but capitalism is perfectly capable of coming together when the issue is global competitiveness.

The bipartisan bill is designed to fund cutting-edge, high-tech industries (including semi-conductors [computer chips], autonomous vehicles, robotics, artificial intelligence, synthetic biology [creation of new organisms], and quantum computing [high speed]).  It provides over $200 billion, and at the time was the largest piece of industrial policy the country had seen in decades.  The fear:  Dependence on China, which has been soaring ahead in research and development in these areas for much of the past decade.

Listen in as Michael Barbaro and David E. Sanger of The New York Times walk us through “The Bill that United the Senate.”  — LMO

“The Senate passed the largest piece of industrial policy seen in the U.S. in decades on Tuesday [June 8, 2021], directing about a quarter of a trillion dollars to bolster high-tech industries…In an era where lawmakers can’t seem to agree on anything, why did they come together for this?…Guest: David E. Sanger, a White House and national security correspondent for The New York Times.”  — The Daily

LISTEN to how a bipartisan bill to fund select new industries passed the Senate recently. | “The Bill that United the Senate” | The Daily, a podcast by The New York Times | 6/9/2021