Congress Approves Corporate Welfare Scheme in Undisputed Victory for Democrats

Never underestimate Congress's ability to revive dead bills, and bad ideas, if enough money is used to revive them.

Oh, and political need – that's key, too.

Such is the case with the revival and swift passage of a massive subsidy bill for the computer chip industry that, on its own, would have taken corporate welfare to bizarre new heights. This being Congress – and it also being an election year – the price tag ballooned with an extra $200 billion or so in federal spending, grants, giveaways and old-fashioned pork.

It's enough to make even the most cynical of us think we are starry-eyed optimists when it comes to pols spending other people's money (that being taxpayer money, of course). Consider this gem:

According to various reports, the subsidies would not only provide a financial windfall for semiconductor companies in [Sen. Chuck] Schumer's home state of New York (something he openly admits), but also reportedly constitute one of the few “political wins” that the Democrats can deliver to President Biden and candidates in key battleground states like Arizona and Ohio ahead of the midterm elections in November—“huge leverage” that chipmakers and other subsidy supporters are perfectly willing to exploit today. Meanwhile, several of the congressional Republicans who support the subsidies—smaller in number than Democratic supporters but essential to the subsidies' legislative success—also host semiconductor companies or large semiconductor consumers in their states or districts.

In other words, it's vote-buying, but the perfectly legal, above-board, in broad daylight kind that Congress mastered even before the ink on the Constitution was dry.

And just when you think it couldn't get any more tawdry:

Congress appears intent on subsidizing an industry making record profits, already building facilities here, and even facing a potential glut—not because doing so makes good economic sense but because the Democratic leadership and the White House need a “political win” and are under serious pressure from powerful domestic interest groups to deliver the cash. Indeed, even as the subsidies' economic justifications dwindled, the subsidy amounts increased.

It might, possibly be a little funny…were Uncle Sam not flat broke. But hey – those bills don't come due until long after the current crop of time servers has gone to the great campaign fundraiser in the sky.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.

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