Open Letter to President Biden

By Bill Yeargin

Dear President Biden,

You have a tough job and get a lot of advice. I hope you don’t mind me sharing some thoughts:

  • COVID-19 – I know this is your Administration’s top priority, but I want to encourage you to do all you can to get the vaccines distributed. We are all ready to get back to a normal life.
  • Global Change – Globalization, increasing computational power, and demographics are all driving significant global change. While change is hard the U.S. must look forward, not back. I hope your Administration will embrace the inevitable change; if we make the right investments today the U.S. will prosper for another century.
  • Global Warming – There are huge financial rewards available to the U.S. related to helping the world prepare for climate change. I encourage your Administration to identify these opportunities and position the U.S. to be the world leader in providing new climate related technology.
  • U.S. Global Leadership – The U.S. has been the global leader since WWII, providing for much of the world’s security and financial stability. There is a cost of that leadership, but also significant tangible and intangible benefits. Those who do not like the U.S. enjoy us stepping back from our leadership roles, but I hope your Administration will embrace them and use our global platform for good.
  • Trade Wars – As previous Co-Chair of the Manufacturing Council’s Trade and Tax Committee, I fully understand that there are opportunities to improve U.S. trade deals. However, the U.S. has incurred self-inflicted wounds by implementing unnecessary tariffs on our allies who have retaliated in a way that has cost U.S. jobs. I encourage your Administration to review all tariffs and rescind those hurting the U.S. economy or making goods unnecessarily expensive for U.S. consumers. Related, the Tran-Pacific Partnership (TPP) may be the best way for the U.S. to get a trade advantage on China; I encourage you to review it again.
  • Immigration – The U.S. economy was built over the past two centuries on immigration. No one wants criminals or terrorists in our country; however, we do need a responsible immigration policy allowing immigration for those who will be net contributors to our society.
  • Infrastructure – Much of the economic success enjoyed the past few decades by the U.S. was significantly boosted by the investment our country made in infrastructure before and after WWII. Unfortunately, we are now rapidly falling behind our global competitors in infrastructure investment. Our future success requires smart infrastructure investments today.
  • Regulation – Responsible regulation is good for our country and business. However, over regulation is damaging. As your Administration considers regulation, I hope that you will protect our people and environment while also allowing the mighty U.S. economic engine to continue creating wealth for its people.
  • Social Security – We have just over a decade remaining of Social Security viability. I hope your Administration will demonstrate leadership by making the hard choices today needed to ensure Social Security is available to another generation of Americans.
  • Fiscal Responsibility – The past few years (even pre-COVID) our federal deficit and debt have been exploding. As a country we must begin demonstrating fiscal responsibility. I hope you will lead a national discussion regarding what services we expect from our government and how we will pay for them. Most federal expenditures go to defense, interest, and the elderly. We need to decide what, if any, of these expenses we will cut. If we are not willing to cut expenses for defense or seniors than we need to agree on how we will pay for them. Leaving a mountain of debt for our kids and grandkids should not be the solution.

President Biden, the U.S. is at an inflection point. We currently have an unusual number of tough choices to be made that will impact our country for decades.

I realize none of this is easy but as we say often at our business, we must do the hard things. I stand ready to help.

Bill Yeargin is the President and CEO of Correct Craft.

Related Articles

4 Comments

  1. Hello Bill,

    Thank you for the opportunity to comment on your open letter to President Biden.

    I’m pleased to see the topic of “globalization” re-labeled as “global change”. The term “globalization” has different connotations to different people. Under the label of “globalization”, the US cannot subvert our rights, privileges and freedoms to any other nation, group of nations or global organization. We must maintain our sovereignty under the US Constitution.

    I encourage the Biden administration to specifically and aggressively enact policy bringing manufacturing back to the US. Tariffs may be one tool to do so. Embracing and promoting lean manufacturing, as well as the job training initiate created by the last administration, should be a priority.

    Wealth, in the hands of generous people, provides comfort for many. In the hands of tyrants and dictators, oppression grows. The Untied States is the most generous of all nations, driven by our Judeo-Christian heritage. Manufacturing, the conversion of raw materials to products of value, is the greatest generator of wealth. Wealth, created by private sector manufacturing, will allow the US to decrease debt, re-new infrastructure, generously contribute to others in times of need and maintain our global influence for the good of all nations.

    Sincerely,
    David Cosby BSME, MBA, P.E.

  2. I thoroughly enjoyed this letter. It was extremely eloquent and well thought out. I think putting it in simple terms was a very beautiful way to express your thoughts and serves to the public in a much more inclusive manner. Thank you so much for sharing.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Back to top button