Dems Should Own America’s Tech Future

The Biden-Harris Administration has invested hundred of millions of dollars in high-tech hubs, major infrastructure projects, and companies and projects that will help ensure American technological and industrial leadership in the years to come.

But no one knows it.

This has been a huge failure for the Administration. Both Joe and Kamala should make a show of as many of their projects as they can. Make sure that the visuals tell the story of their successes. And make sure that the private companies that benefit from Administration policies share in the glory.

It’s not clear why the current administration has invested so much in red districts. Maybe it expects swing voters to be appreciative. But voters can’t appreciate what they don’t know or assume to be Republican-backed projects. Local Republican officials have already taken credit for many government projects that they actually opposed.

Democrats have to reverse this and take the initiative on publicizing their investments, from groundbreaking through development to actual production. These projects should be non-stop publicity machines. But only if Democrats take credit for the jobs they will create and the number of people they actually employ and the promise and reality of the products they will create.

Democrats should emphasize that these are jobs and products that otherwise would have been outsourced to the Chinese. And they should remind tech moguls that it’s not Republicans who have their back.

It seems there’s almost always waste when government puts money into individual company. In at least one recent case, a major tech company announced major layoffs shortly getting government funds. So far the Republicans haven’t made a big deal out of it, but sooner or later they will.

There may not be a better way to invest in America’s tech future, but Democrats don’t need Republicans raising the specter of another Solyndra. These are signature projects of the Administration.

Kamala Harris needs to own the Administration’s successes and make sure the public knows who to credit.