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‘We Got No Return’: Sen. Rick Scott Rips Commerce Secretary For ‘Social Engineering’ In CHIPS Act

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Republican Sen. Rick Scott of Florida ripped Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo over “social engineering” in the CHIPS Act Wednesday.

“We have got to stop the Biden administration from doing social engineering, okay, and we got to go back to say to ourselves why don’t we pass bills with some accountability in them?” Scott told Fox business host Larry Kudlow, a former Trump administration official. “Why don’t we say, ‘if we want chips made in the country, let’s pay for it, if that is important enough to us.’”

Kudlow referenced Tuesday editorials in Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal, both of which blasted the CHIPS Act for failing to deliver on promises to revitalize computer chip production in the United States. Bloomberg noted that chips took 25% longer and cost 50% more, while The Wall Street Journal criticized Raimondo over mandates on pay scales for construction workers and plans for child care issued by the Commerce Department.

The Commerce Department requires that companies seeking some of the $40 billion available in grants need to provide plans for child care, The New York Times reported March 3, noting it was an effort to leverage federal funding to achieve a policy goal Congress did not pass. Raimondo denied Wednesday that she was making social policy.

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“I did a thousand economic development projects when governor of Florida,” Scott said. “Guess what? I got a ten to one return on our money. Up here, all we do, some Republicans are about going with the Democrats, they just throw the money out there, and hope and pray something good will happen.”

Congress passed the CHIPS and Science Act into law in July, authorizing up to $252 billion in grants for research and subsidies for domestic computer chip manufacturers, with 24 House Republicans joining 219 Democrats voting for the bill.

“We got no return for taxpayers. There’s no saying, if I invest this money, I get a return like a shareholder would expect. We should expect that for taxpayers,” Scott said. “But what it did do, is gave the Biden administration to do social policy, tell you what your child care policy will be, what you adult health care policy will be. Every policy you want, they’re going to decide.”

“You know what? The Biden administration, Democrats, they know how to run your company better than you do. That is exactly what this is. This is big government,” Scott continued. “They can tell you everything, because guess what, they all went to the right schools and they know exactly how to social engineer our social engineer our economy because they have done it so well in the past. No, they haven’t.”

The Commerce Department referred the Daily Caller News Foundation to Raimondo’s comments in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.