![]()
This last weekend, Donna and I took an overnight trip up to Phoenix, about two hours north of Tucson, to see the Orioles play the Arizona Diamond backs. First time either of us were ever in an enclosed stadium. Birds won (They're three games in first place in the league) and we had a great time. Our hotel was only three blocks away from the stadium which was so cool.
On the way back, we were about to pass something that piqued my interest on the way up. This gargantuan construction project a couple miles off the highway, seemingly in the middle of nowhere. I had never seen so many giant construction cranes. It looked like it was going to be some huge power station or something like that. Except that those things are usually never this big! So we took the Riggs Road turn off to go see what the heck it was.
As we got as close as we could to it, a guard came out from his shack to see if we needed any help. He told us that the place was going to be making semiconductors and microchips. So when we got back home, I looked it up.
It turns out that this gigantically massive project is only part of a new $20-billion Intel expansion called Project Eagle and has been spurred on as part of Joe Biden's bipartisan (although the majority of GOPs voted against it) $250-billion bill to put America in the forefront of microchip manufacturing, so that we don't have to depend on China for these vastly important prime ingredients of modern life. Just this project has created 3,000 construction jobs and will require 15,000 new permanent positions to be filled when it's up and running.
I tell ya, if I had a few million bucks to invest, I'd be buying up some of the vacant land to build some affordable housing on near that thing. It's semi-surrounded by an island of expensive country club type housing that doesn't look very affordable. And this isn't even the only Intel plant in the region. I understand that there are two other facilities like it near there. Intel is already the largest employer in the city of Chandler, AZ.
This particular project that we saw had actually been started during Obama's administration but had been halted by Intel and was sitting mothballed for quite a few years since then. Now that it's going again, it stands to reason that Biden's "CHIPS and Science Act" was the impetus for it being revived.
So anyway, I just wanted to share this example of the tremendous benefits of the Biden Administration and its policies right here in our back yard.. I mean, it can't compare with the "Build The Wall Project" of a previous administration's job projects, but it's certainly something.
So... Thanks, Joe!!!
