I would trust his first statement more than his second. He only backed off after he faced criticism that could affect the congressman's election. The CHIPS act is a huge Biden policy win so you can bet the GOP will want to repeal it.
> We put up billions of dollars for rich companies to come in and borrow the money and build chip companies here, and they’re not going to give us the good companies anyway.
and
> When I see us paying a lot of money to have people build chips, that’s not the way. You didn’t have to put up 10 cents, you could have done it with a series of tariffs. In other words, you tariff it so high that they will come and build their chip companies for nothing.
That really doesn't sound like it is something he'd just do some minor tweaks to and change the name like he did with NAFTA.
If he does go through with the large tariff approach, something to keep in mind is that usually when you impose tariffs on imports there are retaliatory tariffs imposed on your exports. The US chip making industry makes 82% of its sales from exports.
Sen. Bill Hagerty is in the running for Commerce Secretary (Commerce is the department that runs the CHIPS Act), and he crossed the aisle on a number of semiconductor related legislation.
It does seem like politics at the presidency now is less about what you'll do and more about undoing everything the other side did during their time in office, regardless of utility or popularity of what it is.
Is it me or is this worse now? Had it always been like that and I'm just now seeing it?
Not that the Dems don't undo things... But they add to policy as well.
GOP does culture war, tear stuff down mostly.
I'm a huge fan of the CHIPS Act, but most Americans have not heard of it [0].
That lack of noteriety is what protects it.
Doesn't hurt that most deal flow is in purple districts, so most shit-slingers tend to be far removed and shut up pretty quickly after a quick rebuke from Party Chairs about how close the election is.
[0] - https://www.politico.com/f/?id=0000018f-3fe4-dc61-adff-7fe53...
Same reason why Brandon Williams quickly shut up Mike Johnson even though Mike Johnson could make his life in the GOP and the House hell (not all offices in the CBO have air conditioning despite hellish humidity) - he'd rather keep his seat (NY-22) even if it meant undermining his boss.