Last week, Elon Musk and SpaceX stunned the nation with the triumphant launch of Starship, the largest rocket ever built, and then gently guided the skyscraper-sized booster back to Earth, where it settled into giant mechanical “stick” arms for future reuse. The Starship itself traveled halfway around Earth before successfully re-entering the atmosphere and splashing down in the Indian Ocean. This sci-fi-style achievement came just weeks after SpaceX and Elon delivered high-speed internet to rural communities devastated by Hurricane Helene, and less than a month after SpaceX sent a rescue mission to the International Space Station to retrieve two Americans. the astronauts who were marooned there.
The government should be cheering on these incredible feats of American ingenuity, right? Wrong. In a move emblematic of the hostility with which the current administration treats American industrial success, no fewer than seven federal agencies are pursuing Elon Musk and his businesses under labyrinthine federal regulations. or Wall Street Journal the editorial notes that companies that make up 40 percent of the S&P 500 market cap are currently under investigation by the Biden-Harris administration agencies.
America is the most innovative country in the world. But overregulation and an unchecked and abusive administrative state threaten to stifle American industry and further reduce its ability to manufacture domestically, putting our national security and military superiority at risk. Fortunately, two pro-innovation candidates — former President Donald Trump and his running mate JD Vance — promise to ditch the administrative state, allowing for a revival of American manufacturing.
My friend and former colleague JD Vance has spoken eloquently about the dangers of shrinking our manufacturing base and how to fix it.
In his memoirs Elegy of the HillJD poignantly illustrates the economic and cultural destruction of the American family that resulted from the hollowing out of the American industrial base. As a United States Senator, JD is equally focused on the devastating implications of this decline for national security. He has pointed to the danger posed by our decades-old policy to remove our industrial manufacturing capacity – a policy that has resulted in China’s shipbuilding capacity being reduced by 230 times. But JD has also taken action against the main domestic culprit for American industrial stagnation: overregulation.
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Earlier this year, JD introduced a Senate bill to eliminate the “bundle of regulations” promulgated at five unelected federal agencies that weaken America’s ability to build. The success of measures like this is critical if we are to grow our economy and protect our national interests. JD’s priorities echo those of President Trump, whose first term opened with a historic rollback of federal regulations, which the president colorfully and aptly described as “a relentless avalanche of wasteful, expensive federal regulations and intrusive…a hidden tax on our people. — reducing take-home pay, stifling innovation, raising the cost of goods and sending millions of American jobs overseas.” Under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, those regulations have been reversed.
Despite all this, patriotic tech founders from Southern California to the Midwest, Austin and Miami are working 24/7 to revitalize the American industrial base. These entrepreneurs are building factories and manufacturing products to serve our national security, to fight fires, to improve supply chains, to manufacture in space, to improve frontline security, to streamline the logistics of goods , to produce clean energy, alleviate drought and provide satellite communications. They are providing thousands of jobs for Americans and are working hard to make America’s industrial capacity the best in the world again. We have to let them.
When Ronald Reagan was seeking re-election in 1984, he celebrated the economic recovery of his first term as the United States recovered from the Carter years. With his classic humility, he asserted that “no credit goes to us. We did nothing but get the government out of the way of the American people. It’s your recovery.”
American businesses are poised to usher in a manufacturing renaissance—tech companies innovating on the cutting edge of autonomy, robotics, control systems, and critical edge computing, as well as thousands of small and medium-sized businesses, factories, and machinery across the country that have always been the backbone of American industry. Let’s make sure this renaissance isn’t stifled by government overregulation and overreach.
Presidents Reagan and Trump — and incoming Vice President Vance — understand that when government “gets out of the way,” American ingenuity shines, businesses invest, and Americans secure the future.
Crystal McKellar is the Founder and Managing Partner of Aloft VC where she invests in companies that apply the best of Silicon Valley to the health and defense of our nation.
The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.