For Immediate Release

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

The CHIPS Act is a Corporate Giveaway

“Congress should be ashamed to pass this corporate giveaway after a year of complete failure to do anything whatsoever for needy American families.”

Washington, DC – Today, the Senate voted 64-33 to pass the CHIPS and Science Act, which includes billions of dollars of subsidies and tax credit for the semiconductor industry.

In response, Morris Pearl, the Chair of the Patriotic Millionaires and a former managing director at BlackRock, Inc., released the following statement:

“After months of paralysis on Build Back Better, today the Senate finally took action. But rather than give aid to needy American families or pass wildly popular tax cuts for the rich, the Senate decided to rise to the occasion to cut taxes for already-profitable technology companies like Intel. 

I’m sure this is great for billionaires like Gordon Moore, but it doesn’t do a thing for millions of Americans who need support in these challenging economic times. And it won’t do much to encourage companies to invest in chip fabrication – Intel is already building chip factories as fast as they can.

If Congress wants to use tax breaks to incentivize things, there are lots of better options. We have a shortage of nurses working in emergency rooms. Why doesn’t the Senate vote to have ER nurses pay the same tax rates that investors like me pay? That huge increase in their take home pay would probably encourage some people who are qualified to stop doing other things, and work in emergency rooms instead.

Or if tax incentives for American who work for a living are too radical, how about just passing some of the things they have been talking about for months — the Earned Income Tax Credit or the Child Tax Credit.

There are so many things that our government could do to decrease the gross inequality that is spreading like a cancer in our nation; it is hard for me to believe that they want to run for reelection with a platform of giving tax breaks to some of the biggest and most successful companies in our nation. 

Congress should be ashamed to pass this corporate giveaway after a year of complete failure to do anything whatsoever for needy American families.”

For additional information or interview requests, please contact Sam Quigley at sam@patrioticmillionaires.org.