Voltage Valley represents at Biden’s Cleveland visit

CLEVELAND — President Joe Biden has yet to visit Voltage Valley, but Voltage Valley visited him Thursday.

Rick Stockburger, president and CEO of BRITE Energy Innovators in Warren — Ohio’s only energy technology incubator — was one of three White House invitees from the Mahoning Valley in Cleveland Thursday for Biden’s remarks on the U.S. economy.

Stockburger said he rubbed elbows with the commander-in-chief for a few moments after the president’s remarks, during which President Biden revealed the nation is 9th worldwide in research and development spending.

“I told him about BRITE and the work that we’re doing, how important [research and development] is to the country and the Midwest, specifically,” Stockburger told Mahoning Matters Thursday. “What he said was that’s some of the most important work out there — bringing clean technologies to actual consumers is extremely important and a priority of the administration.”

The Associated Press reported President Biden’s proposed $6 trillion executive budget would run up a $1.8 trillion deficit.

“Now is the time to build (upon) the foundation that we’ve laid to make bold investments in our families and our communities and our nation,” President Biden said Thursday at Cuyahoga Community College. “We know from history that these kinds of investments raise both the floor and the ceiling over the economy for everybody.”

Republicans on Thursday recoiled from sticker shock, the AP reported. The $6 trillion figure represents more than the U.S. spent during World War II, when adjusted for inflation, said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Stockburger said while it’s natural to worry that pushing the national debt closer to $30 trillion — more than $90,000 for every American — would “put my kids in debt for the rest of their lives, he feels the spending plan is “an investment in our future.”

He’s more interested in how the spending could make the U.S. globally competitive in the technology sphere.

“We’re not shipping technology out anymore. We’re importing technology and jobs. We’re in a bad state of affairs overall,” Stockburger said. “The biggest thing that I’m always focused on is that American competitiveness space.

“I’m a big proponent for American competitiveness, and we’re losing that,” he said.

Other Valley invitees Thursday included Youngstown Mayor Jamael Tito Brown and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th.

This story was originally published May 28, 2021 at 5:25 AM with the headline "Voltage Valley represents at Biden’s Cleveland visit."