News

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Mornings with Maria to discuss the weaknesses of the CHIPS Act and the Democrats’ negligence of working Americans. See below for highlights and watch the full interview here.

On the weaknesses of the CHIPS Act:
 
“The details of these bills matter. I want people to understand we need to make semiconductors in America. We’ll never be able to do it if we don’t help, because these companies that we’re competing against are subsidized by the Chinese government. They’re going to undercut us no matter what we do. The problem with this bill is number one it has a massive loophole in it that would allow companies to continue to take taxpayer money and build chips in China. Number two is it had weakened all the protections [against intellectual property theft]. 
 
“[The Chinese Communist Party is] already stealing our research and development. Now they’ll just be able to steal more of it because there’ll be more of it available for them to steal. I tell everybody—I tweeted it this morning,…remember that tweet in the future—when the stories start coming out about how companies that are getting taxpayer money have been allowed by [the U.S. Department of] Commerce to continue to build chips in China, or when the stories come out about how we increased our investment in semiconductors and China stole that investment, people will remember this bill. I wanted to support this bill, but I can’t support a bill that has those loopholes in it. I just can’t.”
 
On why Democrats removed anti-theft protections in the CHIPS Act:
 
“I think there’s two reasons. The first is apparently someone in the House, the universities and the research places got to them. These guys don’t want any restrictions. They want the money for the research, but they don’t want to have to go through an intelligence screening or any sort of security screening. The other is some left-wing activist groups who started saying that those restrictions were racist, that those restrictions were anti-Asian and things of this nature. It’s really unfortunate. 
 
“I think the reason why they took it out is they want to pass a bill. These guys are so desperate to put some wins on the board, they don’t care what the bill does or if the bill is weak. They just want to put some points on the board before election year so they can claim they got things done. We’ll pay the price later. That’s unfortunately how a lot of public policy is being made in America today. That’s why China continues to gain on us.”
 
On how the CHIPS Act could be co-opted for green energy initiatives:
 
“Part of the challenge is the way you describe the research and development. Look, I think in some cases they’ve narrowed the bill more than it used to be in terms of some of those provisions. People have to understand if you don’t write the law very precisely, then you’re leaving it in the hands of some bureaucrat at the Commerce Department to make a decision about what you meant, and it may not be what you intended. 
 
“Legislators here in Washington and Congress, they write bills, and then they walk away from it. Then they come back a year and a half later and realize, oh, my God, the people that are implementing this stuff are doing whatever they want with it because no one’s paying attention. 
 
“You create these potential loopholes, not just for money to go to companies that are building chips in China, not just for China to steal intellectual property and research and development, but potentially for it to be interpreted in a way where semiconductor investment leads to investment and the development of green energy technologies that are frankly not justified at this time by the ability of those technologies to produce energy in a cost efficient way for the country.”
 
On the Democrats’ negligence of economic hardship:
 
“These guys play word games all day. It was just like [President] Joe Biden screaming at gas stations that are independently owned, screaming at gas stations that make a few pennies per gallon—they’re not owned by the oil companies—screaming at them to lower their prices. Joe Biden, who’s now bragging about the fact that gas prices have come down. I’m happy about that [but] they’re still way over $4 in some places. He was telling us a couple of months ago he had nothing to do with gas prices. If it was Putin’s fault that gas went up…, should we thank Putin that it’s going down? It’s absurd. 
 
“Here’s the fundamental challenge we have in American politics today. The modern Democratic Party does not care about working Americans. Their entire agenda is driven by laptop liberals and the demands of Marxist extremists, and they completely ignore what’s in the best interest [of working Americans]. 
 
“In fact, they are hostile to the interest of Americans. 40 percent of Americans are struggling to pay their bills. 50 percent of Americans are increasing the debt load on their backs. These guys don’t care. They’re going to focus on what that [elite] element of the base cares about, because those are the people that raise money for them and those are the people that threaten to riot if they don’t get their way.”
 
On woke investors’ and governments’ restriction of energy production:
 
“I think shareholders and people that have investments through these firms need to be asking some questions because they’re not acting in their best interest. It’s also damaging the world, not just the country, the world. Germany is going to have a potential crisis this winter with energy because they went green and rely on Russian gas. I remember when they were laughing at Trump about that and he warned about that three years ago. It’s actually turned out to be the case. 
 
“We have massive global underinvestment in refining and drilling capacity. Why? Because all these woke governments around the world are signing agreements saying we’re going to put fossil fuel companies out of business and they’re threatening them if they invest in them. So people are not investing in this. 
 
“For decades to come, if we don’t correct course, we’re going to have some very serious problems with the production of energy around the world that’s going to hurt the developing world, but it’s actually going to hurt Americans, too. All of this is driven by this hysteria. 
 
“If they can figure out a way to make a battery in the US that works, that’s cheaper than putting gas in our car. People will do it, but we’re not there yet. In the meantime, we need all of these activists that fly around the world, they fly around the world using jet fuel, and our economy continues to rely on that. When those prices go up, the people that pay the price are working Americans who can’t afford to buy one of Pete Buttigieg’s $65,000 electric cars. 
 
“Why would any business that’s being told, we’re going to put you out of business in ten years, but we need you to do more stuff now. Why would they invest in that? Joe Biden said, ‘I am going to end fossil fuels.’ Well, if you’re in the fossil fuel industry, why would you invest?”