Is the CHIPS and Science Act that Congress just passed actually good for the US?

[Hardkill]

A couple days ago, Congress finishing passing the CHIPS and Science Act, which will subsidize U.S.-made semiconductor chips and increase US competitiveness with China and Taiwan with regarding to chip-making. Proponents of this bill have said that this is absolutely necessary for the following reasons:

- America needs to become much more self-sufficient on the chips instead of relying on Taiwan and China to produce and deliver them to the US, especially given how much the pandemic finally exposed the weaknesses in the global supply chain.

- America needs to be able to manufacture enough of their own semiconductor chips as insurance against possible economic problems that could happen if China  were to invade Taiwan in the future. 

- Fund tens of billions of dollars to scientific research, and incentivize innovation and development of other U.S. technologies.

- Create a lot more good paying manufacturing jobs throughout the entire country.

- Help Cut overall families' costs in the long run.

 

However, Bernie Sanders voted against this bill because he says that it will become just major corporate handout for the five biggest semi-conductor companies including Intel, Texas Instruments, Micron Technology, Global Foundries and Samsung, that already made a combined total of $70 billion in profits last year. He also says that this Act won't ensure that any of these manufacturing companies will do any of the following things:

- Agree to issue warrants or equity stakes to the federal government

- Commit to not buying back their own stock.

- No longer outsource American jobs overseas or repealing existing collective bargaining agreements.

- Remain neutral in any union organizing efforts.

 

Yet, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo met with the caucus virtually Thursday afternoon, and reassured them that the legislation does have those guardrails that Bernie Sanders has been demanding. Also, every other Democrat in the Senate and practically every Democrat in the House, including every progressive voted for the bill. Even AOC stated on her twitter feed that "Our government often gives HUGE incentives to companies - in the case of the COMPETES Act, $52B for semiconductor research & development - with few strings. So, we successfully added an amendment to stop companies from using that $52B on stock buybacks or dividend payouts."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/07/28/house-vote-semiconductor-chips-bill/

 

So, will this Chips and Science Act actually be a good thing for the future of entire country or will the government just be wasting an exorbitant amount of taxpayer money on these manufacturing companies?

Edited July 31, 2022 by Hardkill

[Yarco]

Unless the US can become independent on rare earth metals and mine them itself, I'm not sure if it matters. Otherwise you're still held hostage buying the raw materials from China and they can just jack up the price of those to offset your subsidies, or cut you off entirely in wartime.

It'd be like subsidizing coffee producers in Iceland when they don't have the climate to grow coffee plants in their own country. You need control over every part of the supply chain.