The president has promoted himself as a champion of American manufacturing, but now he avoids addressing its shortcomings.
Hundreds of companies across the United States are reinventing themselves to make equipment that is desperately needed to treat the coronavirus. That so many American manufacturers are rising to meet this pandemic with little coordination from the federal government reveals a deep altruism in our national character.
It also reveals something else: Our country is unable to meet an immediate need for critical medical supplies and personal protective equipment in the face of a crisis. The absence of adequate domestic production capacity for things like face shields and respirators, coupled with the frailty of on-demand global supply chains and our utter reliance on them — for everything from the ingredients in our medications to parts of breathing machines — has left us dangerously exposed during an international health emergency.
Mohawk Fine Papers and its United Steelworkers employees are shifting to medical gown and mask production. American Giantand other garment manufacturers are scaling up the production of medical-grade masks. Companies from Budweiser to Ford are churning out hand sanitizer and ventilators. These instances of private sector action are inspiring, but they won’t be enough.
Our policymaking is still behind the curve. President Trump is starting to selectively use the Defense Production Act, a law from the Korean War era that allows the president not only to order businesses to prioritize the manufacture of items deemed crucial to national security but also to subsidize them. This is something he should have done many weeks ago, and even still he’s mostly invoking it haphazardly with companies that draw his ire.
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