Wealth & Money Quote by Jennifer Granholm

The line reads like a frustration dressed up as a balance sheet: America has power, but it’s acting like it doesn’t. Granholm frames the U.S. economy as an “engine,” a metaphor that quietly demands a driver. Engines don’t admire themselves; they convert fuel into motion. By pairing “the strongest economy in the world” with “totally weak response,” she creates a moral contrast: strength is being squandered, and that squandering is, implicitly, a choice.

The $500 billion figure does more than provide evidence; it supplies a villain without naming one. A trade deficit becomes a symbol of national passivity, a shorthand for dependence and lost industrial capacity. “We import... more than we export” cues a familiar political narrative: the country is buying instead of building, consuming instead of producing, outsourcing instead of investing. The subtext isn’t just about trade; it’s about leverage - using market size, federal policy, and procurement to reshape supply chains and domestic manufacturing.

As a Democratic policymaker associated with energy and industrial strategy, Granholm’s context likely includes the post-pandemic supply-chain shock, inflation politics, and the revived push for “Made in America” via subsidies and clean-energy investment. She’s signaling that economic dominance should translate into strategic bargaining power: if the U.S. is the world’s biggest customer, it can set terms. The rhetorical move is also defensive. By defining the response as “weak,” she preemptively challenges the criticism that industrial policy is heavy-handed, recasting it as the necessary assertion of strength rather than government overreach.