A reason for hope, at a time of deep division
Yet our common humanity is much deeper and more powerful than our differences.
It's important to recognize that, as a nation, we are stronger because we are able to express and debate different points of view respectfully.
As the executive directors of two presidential centers — one Republican, one Democratic — we have found inspiration through hundreds of leaders who have come together, across partisan lines, to learn from each other and make a difference in their communities.
Ten years ago, Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George H.W. Bush teamed up with the LBJ Foundation to create the Presidential Leadership Scholars — a program aimed at developing leaders who work with, not against, those with different perspectives and beliefs to make a positive, lasting impact in the United States and around the world.
Throughout the program, scholars encounter bold examples of presidential collaboration: President Johnson uniting an unlikely coalition to pass landmark civil rights legislation. President George H.W. Bush bringing together both parties to end discrimination through the Americans with Disabilities Act. President Clinton working across the aisle to balance the budget for the first time in a generation — reducing the national debt and leaving the country with a record surplus. President George W. Bush rallying bipartisan support for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which has saved more than 26 million lives.
These examples give scholars insights into how, even amidst division and disagreement, we can work together to create something better.
A decade later, the program has nearly 600 alumni. While they are of different political affiliations, work across different sectors, and are from various parts of the country, these leaders share a common trait: their desire to work across divides to make positive change.
The most critical piece of this program is a charge for these leaders to develop personal leadership projects that address a challenge and make a difference in their communities.
Jon Bennion, a 2018 alum of the scholars program, built a program that brings Republicans and Democrats from the Montana state Legislature together for a literal 'sausage-making' event — creating an opportunity to build trust and relationships that can help elected leaders reach consensus on divisive issues.
Steve Lopez, a 2023 Scholar, discovered the shortage of mechanics was threatening Dallas Fire-Rescue's ability to quickly respond to emergency situations. Inspired by a program started by a fellow Scholar, Lopez led an overhaul of the mechanic recruitment and training process and is building a school-to-work pipeline to bring students into the field.
From last year's class of scholars, Keely Cat-Wells developed a talent acquisition and learning platform for disabled professionals. Cat-Wells became disabled at age 17, and through her new platform, she has already supported more than 3,000 disabled people and connected employers with a highly qualified and often-overlooked talent pool.
President Johnson once said, 'There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.' At a time of great division, the Presidential Leadership Scholars program gives us hope and inspiration that our common humanity can prevail, and the next generation can come together to solve problems in ways that will bring us together, not tear us apart.
David J. Kramer is executive director of the George W. Bush Institute and Stephanie S. Streett is executive director of the Clinton Foundation.
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US manufacturers are stuck in a rut despite subsidies from Biden and protection from Trump
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In fact, U.S. factories have been in decline for 30 of the 32 months since October 2022, according to ISM. 'The past three years have been a real slog for manufacturing,'' said Eric Hagopian, CEO of Pilot Precision Products, a maker of industrial cutting tools in South Deerfield, Massachusetts. 'We didn't get destroyed like we did in the recession of 2008. But we've been in this stagnant, sort of stationary environment.'' Big economic factors contributed to the slowdown: A surge in inflation, arising from the unexpectedly strong economic recovery from COVID-19, raised factory expenses and prompted the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates 11 times in 2022 and 2023. The higher borrowing costs added to the strain. Government policy was meant to help. Biden's tax incentives for semiconductor and clean energy production triggered a factory-building boom – investment in manufacturing facilities more than tripled from April 2021 through October 2024 – that seemed to herald a coming surge in factory production and hiring. Eventually anyway. But the factory investment spree has faded as the incoming Trump administration launched trade wars and, working with Congress, ended Biden's subsidies for green energy. Now, predicts Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, 'manufacturing production will continue to flatline.' 'If production is flat, that suggests manufacturing employment will continue to slide,' Zandi said. 'Manufacturing is likely to suffer a recession in the coming year.'' Meanwhile, Trump is attempting to protect U.S. manufacturers — and to coax factories to relocate and produce in America — by imposing tariffs on goods made overseas. He slapped 50% taxes on steel and aluminum, 25% on autos and auto parts, 10% on many other imports. In some ways, Trump's tariffs can give U.S. factories an edge. Chris Zuzick, vice president at Waukesha Metal Products, said the Sussex, Wisconsin-based manufacturer is facing stiff competition for a big contract in Texas. A foreign company offers much lower prices. But 'when you throw the tariff on, it gets us closer,'' Zuzick said. 'So that's definitely a situation where it's beneficial.'' But American factories import and use foreign products, too – machinery, chemicals, raw materials like steel and aluminum. Taxing those inputs can drive up costs and make U.S producers less competitive in world markets. Consider steel. Trump's tariffs don't just make imported steel more expensive. By putting the foreign competition at a disadvantage, the tariffs allow U.S. steelmakers to raise prices – and they have. U.S.-made steel was priced at $960 per metric ton as of June 23, more than double the world export price of $440 per ton, according to industry monitor SteelBenchmarker. In fact, U.S. steel prices are so high that Pilot Precision Products has continued to buy the steel it needs from suppliers in Austria and France — and pay Trump's tariff. Trump has also created considerable uncertainty by repeatedly tweaking and rescheduling his tariffs. Just before new import taxes were set to take effect on dozens of countries on July 9, for example, the president pushed the deadline back to Aug. 1 to allow more time for negotiation with U.S. trading partners. The flipflops have left factories, suppliers and customers bewildered about where things stand. Manufacturers voiced their complaints in the ISM survey: 'Customers do not want to make commitments in the wake of massive tariff uncertainty,'' a fabricated metal products company said. 'Tariffs continue to cause confusion and uncertainty for long-term procurement decisions,'' added a computer and electronics firm. 'The situation remains too volatile to firmly put such plans into place.'' Some may argue that things aren't necessarily bad for U.S. manufacturing; they've just returned to normal after a pandemic-related bust and boom. Factories slashed nearly 1.4 million jobs in March and April 2020 when COVID-19 forced many businesses to shut down and Americans to stay home. Then a funny thing happened: American consumers, cooped up and flush with COVID relief checks from the government, went on a spending spree, snapping up manufactured goods like air fryers, patio furniture and exercise machines. Suddenly, factories were scrambling to keep up. They brought back the workers they laid off – and then some. Factories added 379,000 jobs in 2021 — the most since 1994 — and then tacked on another 357,000 in 2022. But in 2023, factory hiring stopped growing and began backtracking as the economy returned to something closer to the pre-pandemic normal. In the end, it was a wash. Factory payrolls last month came to 12.75 million, almost exactly where they stood in February 2020 (12.74 million) just before COVID slammed the economy. 'It's a long, strange trip to get back to where we started,'' said Jared Bernstein, chair of Biden's White House Council of Economic Advisers. Zuzick at Waukesha Metal Products said that it will take time to see if Trump's tariffs succeed in bringing factories back to America. 'The fact is that manufacturing doesn't turn on a dime,'' he said. 'It takes time to switch gears.'' Hagopian at Pilot Precision is hopeful that tax breaks in Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill will help American manufacturing regain momentum. 'There may be light at the end of the tunnel that may not be a locomotive bearing down,'' he said. For now, manufacturers are likely to delay big decisions on investing or bringing on new workers until they see where Trump's tariffs settle and what impact they have on the economy, said Ned Hill, professor emeritus in economic development at Ohio State University. 'With all this uncertainty about what the rest of the year is going to look like,'' he said, 'there's a hesitancy to hire people just to lay them off in the near future.'' 'Everyone,'' said Zuzick at Waukesha Metal Products, 'is kind of just waiting for the new normal.''
