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**In 2008, as the economy was in free fall, Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama worked together with their secretaries of the Treasury, the chair of the Federal Reserve, and the president of the New York Federal Reserve and created one of the largest financing schemes in the history of the United States to prevent total economic meltdown. Part of this was the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the $700 billion package that Congress passed in response to the financial crisis. But the overwhelmingly greater part of this plan used the Fed to lend out somewhere between $7 trillion and $29 trillion in near-zero-interest loans directly to banks to keep them afloat. While this worked to save our banking system and avoid the worst possible disaster, the plan neglected to invest in rebuilding the real economy. As a result, Americans saw a grueling, decade-long recovery—if they saw any recovery at all.

In 2021, the Biden administration will face an even deeper and potentially longer recession, triggered by Covid-19—but with roots in a chronic failure to invest in vast swaths of our country.** To fix both, we need to secure a revitalization of our real economy, which will require a massive infusion of both private and public capital.

How do we find that capital?

One place to start is by emphasizing one of the most important functions of government in the economy: creating liquidity. By that I mean the ability to raise cash quickly. While this is usually associated with banks and their crucial role in the flow of money throughout the economy, there are other institutions, such as pension funds and even some large corporations, that have a similar role. And we need to revive these institutions.

We also need to bring back jobs in manufacturing. The United States is built on a foundation of manufacturing—not only building cars, TVs, and computers but also creating the machines that make those things possible. Manufacturing jobs not only provide a pathway out of poverty for workers but also turn into higher-paying jobs for those who move up the ladder. In 2017, manufacturing jobs were directly responsible for more than one-third of all jobs in the country.

The problem is that there aren’t enough of them. In 2008, manufacturing jobs accounted for about 17 percent of the US workforce. Just ten years later, that number had dropped to 12 percent—and continues to fall. This is because automation and technology have changed what it means to be a factory worker. As a result, when we rebuild our infrastructure we must also rethink how we structure our labor force to meet the demands of our increasingly automated future. In addition to rebuilding our roads and bridges, we must invest in advanced manufacturing.

Finally, we must recognize that many businesses still don’t feel confident enough in their own prospects to invest in new equipment or hire new workers—even if demand starts to rise again. One response is direct intervention by the government to encourage investment and hiring. Another is to reduce taxes on companies that create jobs and on middle-class workers—which will in turn provide consumers with more disposable income to spend on goods and services whenever business does improve. These are policies that Republicans typically resist but that they should embrace now in order to strengthen our economy and avoid being blamed for America’s next recession. In other words, if you are an American citizen who wants more than just a few years of growth from your leaders—whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat—we all have something to lose if we don’t seize this moment of opportunity together now.

I’ve spent my entire adult life in Washington, DC, fighting to make this country work better for people like me. I know that the problems we face are real and complex. But I also know that if we can overcome them, we can achieve something that will be truly historic: an end to cycles of boom and bust, and a future that is more sustainable—for our economy, for our environment, and for our democracy.

When I was a boy growing up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, an older kid once told me that there were two kinds of people in the world: the ones who do things and the ones who talk about doing things. The kid said that he wanted to be one of the people who did things. And so do I.