SGR

Just a guess, but Biden called on Congress to pass the CHIPS Act (which he's expected to sign next week) in his State of the Union address. He wants to subsidize domestic chip manufacturing. Taiwan currently provides the vast majority of US microchips. Pelosi's trip could be a way to reassure Taiwan that we're not planning on abandoning them in business relations or arms sales, and by Pelosi not backing down after vague Chinese threats, it also bolsters trust in other alliances of the US with foreign countries that involve arms deals and business relations that may be under threat by other large powers. As it stands, to my knowledge, the US is under no obligation to defend Taiwan in the case of a Chinese military takeover, but it's not off the table. It would have to be approved by Congress though.

In short, my understanding of the motives for her trip, geopolitical advantages.

music_collector

Yeah, that makes sense. Biden campaigned on a "buy/produce local" type mandate, didn't he?

SGR

Sort of, he did mention it before being elected and there has been movement on it. I don't remember it being a big part of his campaign promises, but I could be wrong. Here's more on the latest on that, it's all basically refinements and/or additions to Hoover's 1933 "Buy American Act" - there's a lot of caveats and exceptions though.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-m...e-all-product/

Perspective from an American: I'm all on board with this, but I wouldn't want it taken to an extreme. The reason so many US consumer goods are cheap is because we can import them for a much lower cost than we can manufacture them domestically. But certain essential goods, like medicine and microchips need to have a strong domestic production base, because if they don't, then you find yourself in a difficult situation when the supply chain is completely disrupted by something unexpected like the pandemic. We saw that, for example, with medicines during the pandemic. The vast majority of the US's pharmaceutical imports are sourced from China. There was a lot of talk of decoupling from China during the pandemic - again, it would be unwise to do so to an extreme, but bolstering our domestic production base for some of these products seems like a prudent thing to do.

SGR

Obama was the first president to brew beer in the White House. Andrew Jackson would've been proud.

music_collector

Thanks for this.

I think we can do more "made in Canada" things as well. I'd use oil as an example, but oil might be a forbidden word here. We could definitely use more manufacturing jobs here. Not everyone can work in an office, right?

Trollheart

Well, duh.
This is really interesting. So the Pres has not really any power over Congress? You're a weird, weird country, you know that? Here, the Taoiseach (PM) is lord and master of the party and anyone who steps out of line is in big trouble. I'm pretty sure that's how it is in the UK too, and most if not all of Western Europe.

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

SGR

I dont think this is completely true. If a member of Congress from the same party as the President continually snubs the President, said President could support a primary opponent to said member of Congress. It's leverage that would only really work if the President, their administration and their agenda is more popular with the congress member's constituency than the congress member is. On the other side of the coin, and Im not exactly sure of the specifics of this, but a congress member could switch party affiliation giving more power to the other side. Obviously this is really risky for them politically so it doesn't happen often.

rubber soul

True, as the head of his party, the President could support a primary opponent much like Trump did during his term, but it is really contingent on how much control you have within the party. In Biden's case, right now, he is about as popular as sewage waste with the Dems.

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music_collector

You can say that it's the way here in Canada. A lot has been said and written about the power that has been centralized in the prime minister's office.

music_collector

That is fair to say. A lot of leaders in this part of the world are in the same boat.

I don't know the structure of the parties. I know here, Trudeau controls everyone in the party. If someone in the party goes against him, they're gone.