I think there's probably an initial skepticism when people just Google me.
Representative Ro Khanna of California. So you're Silicon Valley's
representative. Who is this guy?
This Indian American of Hindu faith from the Bay Area who's talking about bringing
manufacturing jobs back. It's absolutely critical to our nation,
to our economic strength that we should be making things here again.
Steel, aluminum, textiles, paper. These factories should be in the United
States. I'm Ro Khanna. I represent Silicon Valley in
the United States Congress. It's an extraordinary district.
It's incredibly diverse. The 17th District is the heart of
American innovation and technology. You have Apple, Google, Intel, Yahoo!
Cisco, LinkedIn and Tesla are all in this incredible place.
You have a jam-packed schedule. I've heard this is quite normal for you. Run us through what's
on your plate for today. Well, we have an interview with a
Vietnamese American station and we have a meeting with Starbucks workers who are
trying to unionize, going to have a town hall later and we have a few more events on the
calendar. And I'm flying out tonight to Taiwan.
Oh, wow. Now, wait, that's a big deal.
This is the first US delegation to visit Taiwan after the
US shot down an alleged Chinese spy balloon.
One of the main things is the economic relationship to see how they've succeeded
in building their semiconductor manufacturing and how we can build
semiconductor manufacturing here.
I'll be meeting the president and defense secretary to also make sure that
it's clear that Taiwan has the capability to prevent any military invasion.
I was born in Philadelphia in 1976.
My parents immigrated from India. A lot of my influence was from my
grandfather, who spent years fighting for India's independence.
He was someone who I really found inspiring, who shaped my interest in
politics. And then I was shaped by my upbringing
in Bucks County. My parents didn't talk as much about my
rights as a son of immigrants. They talked a lot about my
responsibilities. They'd say, you won the lottery.
You were born in America. Go make something of yourself.
Go work hard, go study hard. So it has given me a real respect for
the immigrant experience as enriching and building the strength of the nation.
Khanna went on to teach economics at Stanford,
serve in the Obama administration and become one of the leading voices in the
House working to bring American manufacturing and tech leadership back
to the US. A 'new economic patriotism' simply means
that the private sector can work with universities, community colleges, labor,
the government to have a common purpose of investing in America's production
capability. What I think we need to do is look at
regions that have been decimated, de-industrialized, say what are their
assets? How can we have a moonshot there?
How can we have place-based policy for economic revitalization?
What's some of your proudest accomplishments so far? Well certainly the
CHIPS and Science Act that I helped draft led to two Intel factories coming
to Ohio, led to Micron being in upstate New York with almost 00 billion
investment. I believe for us to have the next
generation of manufacturing, we need new technology.
We need immigrants. We need an educated workforce.
We need the skilled trades and vocational education.
We need government financing. And this can be a common national
purpose. The economic revitalization of the
country. I've said we need a CHIPS Act every year
for many different industries. This can't be a one off.
Now both parties recognize that the gutting of factory towns was a huge
mistake. The offshoring of production was a huge
mistake. The economic disparity is polarizing
America. I've called for a $2 trillion investment over 10 years.
The CHIPS Act was about $50 billion. We need to have the same urgency, the
same scale to build this production base.
It is a difficult argument to convince people on the spending.
I have not gotten people to buy into the $2 trillion investment.
I did the bill with Marco Rubio. He's good with $20 billion investment,
which is a start. But I will continue to make it that we
have to go big and bold on this. It's been a long day, but a good
day. And we're now going to the town hall
before flying out. The town hall is the best part of my
job. I do it every month and we often get 200,
300 people. Sometimes you get 20, 30 people.
It always makes me much more thoughtful. Hi Congressman. Thank you for inviting us.
I appreciate the participation here and the honor to represent you.
Thank you very much. I am very enthusiastic in backing
President Biden. I'm very excited about the work I'm
doing in my district and in Silicon Valley.
Do I want to be part of the national conversation?
Absolutely. But I'd love nothing more than to
someone to take my ideas in 2024 and implement it.
It was a great town hall. We had a better than expected turnout
on a Friday night. And now I'm headed to the airport for a
12 hour flight to Taiwan. I think people want economic
prosperity. They want economic success.
What they're concerned about is that they are left out, that their kids are
left out. There is a hunger in America for people
to cross geographical lines, racial lines to see that we're all on the same
team. And so, if anything, I think it allows
me to say, I understand the global economy.
I understand what it's going to take to succeed in the 21st century economy.
And I want to make sure that every community, every American has that
opportunity.