Now All Biden Has to Do Is Build It
In the past few months, Joe Biden\u2019s agenda has gone from a failed promise to real legislation.\n\nTaken together, the CHIPS and Science Act and the Inflation Reduction Act (along with the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act) have the potential to put America on a path to decarbonization, develop some of the most advanced and crucial supply chains in the world, and build all kinds of next-generation technologies. It\u2019s hard to overstate just how transformative these plans could be if they are carried out in the right way.\n\nBut that\u2019s a big \u201cif.\u201d Because Biden\u2019s legacy will not be written just in tax code and regulatory law. All of this legislation is about building things in the real world \u2014 from wind farms to semiconductor manufacturing plants to electric vehicle charging stations and so much more. Which means the hard work isn\u2019t over. It\u2019s just beginning.\n\nFelicia Wong is the president and chief executive of the Roosevelt Institute and someone who has had an unusually clear read of the Biden administration from the beginning. Wong has been arguing that Biden wants to fundamentally reshape the productive capacity of the economy. And now he\u2019s gotten approval of bills that have the potential to do just that. But Wong is also realistic about the obstacles in the way of realizing that project. And so the question at the center of this conversation is: What will it take to turn the Biden agenda from written legislation into lived reality?\n\nWe also discuss the death of the \u201ccare infrastructure\u201d for helping families that was at the heart of the Build Back Better proposal, the challenges of building up the American semiconductor industry, why some progressives view these bills as \u201ccorporate welfare,\u201d the conservative argument that government shouldn\u2019t be \u201cpicking winners and losers,\u201d how these bills could respond to America\u2019s deep regional inequalities, how to address the problem of NIMBYism, what participatory budgeting and worker cooperatives can teach us about better ways to represent community voices, why we should want the government to take bigger risks even if that means more government failure, and much more\n\nMentioned:\n\n\u201cAll Biden Has to Do Now Is Change the Way We Live\u201d by Ezra Klein\n\nBook recommendations:\n\nThe Middle Out by Michael Tomasky (accompanied by new podcast, "How to Save a Country")\n\nElite Capture by Ol\xfaf\u1eb9\u0301mi O. T\xe1\xedw\xf2\n\nChords of Change (forthcoming 2023) by Deepak Bhargava and Stephanie Luce\n\nThoughts? Guest suggestions? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com.\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d at nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\n\n\u200b\u200b \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d is produced by Annie Galvin and Rog\xe9 Karma. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris, Mary Marge Locker and Kate Sinclair. Original music by Isaac Jones. Mixing by Carole Sabouraud and Isaac Jones. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta. Special thanks to Kristin Lin and Kristina Samulewski.