When these types of things are funded one always gets the sinking feeling that the money is just getting stolen and/or wasted by savvy insiders who know how to write grants or who know the right people. In fact, I think that's a reasonable assumption and some proof is required to show that it is not the case.
It's hard to fake a building going up.
1) Employers are responsible for employee health coverage, inflating employee costs by a significant degree. The rationale for this model among the investor class is that it makes employees dependent on their employer and limits the power of unions, but for example in Germany, there's free state-supplied health care (paid for by higher taxes on individual and corporate profits).
2) Four decades of neoliberal trade policy and corporate profit maximization have created a situation of fragile global supply chain dependence and a lack of skilled experienced labor in many manufacturing sectors. High-skill manufacturing jobs have been replaced with low-skill service jobs and the brain drain into the financial sector has left the industrial sector in second place.
3) Construction and operation of new manufacturing facilities relies on a robust domestic infrastructure system, but American infrastructure (railroads, electricity grids, ports, etc.) is woefully decrepit in many areas and lags behind China and Europe. Again the reason is nobody wants to pay for it, and the issue is not 'overregulation' it's that it would require higher taxes and corrupt government contractors divert government funds into their own pockets instead of into the projects, resulting in constant cost overruns and low-quality outputs (reminscent with what went on with Iraq and Afghanistan reconstruction contracts).
It turns out worshipping at the feet of Milton Friedman & Co. wasn't such a good idea after all.
A whole lot of people want to pay for it. The problem is that a minority doesn't, and they've been able to ruin things for the rest of us.