US semiconductor bill unites Bernie Sanders with conservative right in opposition to ‘corporate welfare’
- Democratic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders opposes the bill that would add US$79 billion to the deficit in 10 years over subsidies to chip manufacturers
- Conservatives also oppose the bill meant to help the US build more chip plants and compete with China, narrowing its route to becoming law
A bill to boost semiconductor production in the United States has managed to do nearly the unthinkable – unite the democratic socialist Senator Bernie Sanders and the fiscally conservative right.
The bill making its way through the Senate is a top priority of the Biden administration. It would add about US$79 billion to the deficit over 10 years, mostly as a result of new grants and tax breaks that would subsidise the cost that computer chip manufacturers incur when building or expanding chip plants in the United States.
Supporters say that countries all over the world are spending billions of dollars to lure chip makers. The US must do the same or risk losing a secure supply of the semiconductors that power the nation’s automobiles, computers, appliances and some of the military’s most advanced weapons systems.
Sanders, I-Vermont, and a wide range of conservative lawmakers, think tanks and media outlets have a different take. To them, it’s “corporate welfare”. It’s just the latest example of how spending taxpayer dollars to help the private sector can scramble the usual partisan lines, creating allies on the left and right who agree on little else. They are positioning themselves as defenders of the little guy against powerful interest groups lining up at the public trough.
Sanders said he doesn’t hear from people about the need to help the semiconductor industry. Voters talk to him about climate change, gun safety, preserving a woman’s right to an abortion and boosting Social Security benefits, to name just a few.
“Not too many people that I can recall – I have been all over this country – say: ‘Bernie, you go back there and you get the job done, and you give enormously profitable corporations, which pay outrageous compensation packages to their CEOs, billions and billions of dollars in corporate welfare,’” Sanders said.
Sanders voted against the original semiconductor and research bill that passed the Senate last year. He was the only senator who caucuses with the Democrats to oppose the measure, joining with 31 Republicans.
