Semiconductor law unites Sanders, right — in opposition, #Semiconductor #bill #unites #Sanders #opposition Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the United States has succeeded in doing nearly the unthinkable: uniting Democratic Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders and the fiscally conservative right.
The bill that passes the Senate is a top priority of the Biden administration. It would add about $79 billion to the deficit in 10 years, mainly due to new subsidies and tax breaks that would subsidize the costs computer chip manufacturers incur in building or expanding chip factories in the United States.
Proponents say countries around the world spend billions of dollars to lure chipmakers. The US must do the same or risk losing a secure supply of semiconductors that power the military’s cars, computers, appliances and some of the military’s most advanced weapon systems.
Sanders, I-Vt., and a wide range of conservative lawmakers, think tanks, and media outlets have a different view. For them it is ‘social welfare’. It’s just the latest example of how spending taxpayers’ money to help the private sector can straddle the usual partisan lines, creating allies left and right who agree on little else. They position themselves as defenders of the little man against powerful interest groups lining up at the public trough.
Sanders said he’s not hearing 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 abortion and increasing Social Security benefits, to name a few.
“Not too many people I can remember – I’ve been all over the country – say, ‘Bernie, you go back there and you get the job done, and you give hugely profitable companies, paying 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 passed by the Senate last year. He was the only senator to consult with Democrats to oppose the measure, along with 31 Republicans.
While Sanders would like to see spending directed elsewhere, several GOP senators just want spending stopped, period. sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, said the spending would help fuel inflation that hurts the poor and middle class.
“The poorer you are, the more you suffer. Even people who are well entrenched in the middle class are getting quite eroded. Why we would want to take money from them and give it to the rich is beyond my understanding,” Lee said.
Conservative mainstays such as the editors of The Wall Street Journal, the Heritage Foundation and the tea party-oriented group FreedomWorks also voted against the bill. “Giving taxpayer money to wealthy companies is not a competitor of China,” said Walter Lohman, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center.
The opposition from the far left and far right means Senate Leader Chuck Schumer, DN.Y., and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., need the help of Republicans to get a bill across the finish line. It takes support from at least 11 Republican senators to overcome a filibuster. The final vote on the bill is expected next week.
sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, is one of the likely Republican supporters. Asked about Sanders’ argument against the bill, Romney said that when other countries subsidize the production of high-tech chips, the US should join the club.
“If you don’t play like they play, you’re not going to make high-tech chips, and they’re essential to our national defense and our economy,” Romney said.
The most common reason lawmakers give for subsidizing the semiconductor industry is the risk to national security from relying on foreign suppliers, especially after the supply chain problems of the pandemic. Nearly four-fifths of global manufacturing capacity is located in Asia, according to the Congressional Research Servicebroken down into South Korea at 28%, Taiwan at 22%, Japan at 16% and China at 12%.
“My fear is that more and more companies will locate their manufacturing facilities in other countries and we will become more and more vulnerable,” said R-Maine Senator Susan Collins.
Proponents are confident that the bill will pass the Senate. The deadline for passing the bill through the House is narrow if progressives align with Sanders and if most Republicans stand in opposition on fiscal concerns. The White House says the bill should be passed before the end of the month as companies are now making decisions about where to build.
Two major congressional groups, the Problem Solvers caucus and the New Democrat Coalition, have endorsed the measure in recent days,
The Problem Solvers caucus consists of members from both parties. Rep. Pennsylvania’s Brian Fitzpatrick, the group’s Republican co-chair, said Intel Corp. wants to build its chip capacity in the United States, but that much of that capacity will go to Europe if Congress does not approve the bill.
“If a semiconductor-related bill is put forward, it will be passed,” Fitzpatrick said.
Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., said he believes the legislation controls many of his voters, including the front burner of the day, inflation.
“This is about reducing inflation. If you look at inflation, a third of inflation in the last quarter was cars, and that’s because there’s a shortage of chips,” Kilmer said. “So this is about, one, making sure we make things in the United States, and two, about cutting costs.”