美国国家公共电台 NPR--The White House has a windfall to spend on semiconductor projects

The White House has a windfall to spend on semiconductor¹ projects

Transcript²

Officials at the White House are figuring out how to spend more than $52 billion on semiconductor projects. The Biden administration's point person lays out the goals and the pitfalls³.

A MARTINEZ, HOST:

President Biden is visiting an IBM plant in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., today. The company is announcing a $20 billion investment. It's part of what the White House calls a boom spurred by a new law that includes big subsidies⁴ for semiconductor projects. A team at the White House is working out how to spend this windfall. Here's NPR's White House correspondent Franco Ordo?ez.

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FRANCO ORDO?EZ, BYLINE⁵: When President Biden signed a bill on semiconductors⁶ this summer, there was more fanfare⁷ than usual. Surrounded by lawmakers and industry leaders in front of the White House, Biden called the new law a turning point.

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PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Today is a day for builders.

ORDO?EZ: The law has $52 billion to build chip factories in America. Chips are needed to run almost everything from cars to the weapons the U.S. is sending to help Ukraine. And the U.S. has fallen behind China on the newest technology.

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BIDEN: Unfortunately, we produce 0% of these advanced chips now. And China is trying to move way ahead of us.

ORDO?EZ: The problem became acute during the pandemic. After years of dominating the industry, the U.S. lost ground and became too dependent on Asia for semiconductors. The White House wants to turn that back around.

RONNIE CHATTERJI: We invented this industry in the United States. I mean, there's a reason it's called Silicon⁸ Valley.

ORDO?EZ: That's Ronnie Chatterji, the economist⁹ who Biden put in charge of helping¹⁰ figure out how to spend billions to revive the U.S. chip industry. He says surging car prices last year showed why this is so important.

CHATTERJI: That was one of the biggest drivers of inflation. Probably one-third of the inflation increase in 2021 was because of cars. We couldn't get the chips we needed to build the cars. And when you can't get the chips you need to build the cars, workers get furloughed, and prices go up.

ORDO?EZ: So the White House wants to see chips made here. But this is a significant shift in thinking for Washington, stepping away from free trade. And there are hazards with government interference and the risk of wasteful¹¹ spending.

SCOTT LINCICOME: This is a classic case of trying to pick the winners and avoiding the losers.

ORDO?EZ: Scott Lincicome has warned against this for years. He's a trade economist at the libertarian-leaning Cato Institute. He says too often those who spend the most money lobbying get the subsidies, where sometimes projects end up in politically important regions instead of the places where they make the most sense.

LINCICOME: Time and time again with U.S. industrial policy projects, the government has good intentions but ends up actually backing the wrong horse.

ORDO?EZ: Chatterji is aware of the pitfalls. Today, he's kicking off talks with Cabinet members about how to roll out the spending. And he says he's confident they can make good decisions if governments, private companies and labor¹² all work together.

LINCICOME: And so we have to keep our eye on the ball of setting a foundation for all of industry to survive, including small- and medium-sized enterprises. That's the way we avoid that critique about picking winners that's plagued industrial policy in the past.

ORDO?EZ: But he says getting everyone singing from the same hymn¹³ book will be his greatest challenge.

Franco Ordo?ez, NPR News.

1 semiconductor   

n.半导体

参考例句：

• In the beginning,engineers hoped to use semiconductor lasers.在开始时，工程师们希望能够利用半导体激光器。
• The main agent of the company brand semiconductor sales.本公司主要代理各品牌半导体销售。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 pitfalls   

（捕猎野兽用的）陷阱( pitfall的名词复数 )； 意想不到的困难，易犯的错误

参考例句：

• the potential pitfalls of buying a house 购买房屋可能遇到的圈套
• Several pitfalls remain in the way of an agreement. 在达成协议的进程中还有几个隐藏的困难。

4 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 semiconductors   

n.半导体( semiconductor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Crystals may be insulators, semiconductors, or conductors. 晶体可以是绝缘体，半导体，或导体。 来自辞典例句
• Semiconductors containing such impurities are called p-type semiconductors. 含有这类杂质的半导体叫做P型半导体。 来自辞典例句

7 fanfare   

n.喇叭；号角之声；v.热闹地宣布

参考例句：

• The product was launched amid much fanfare worldwide.这个产品在世界各地隆重推出。
• A fanfare of trumpets heralded the arrival of the King.嘹亮的小号声宣告了国王驾到。

8 silicon   

n.硅(旧名矽)

参考例句：

• This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
• A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。

9 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

10 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

11 wasteful   

adj.（造成）浪费的，挥霍的

参考例句：

• It is a shame to be so wasteful.这样浪费太可惜了。
• Duties have been reassigned to avoid wasteful duplication of work.为避免重复劳动浪费资源，任务已经重新分派。

12 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

13 hymn   

n.赞美诗，圣歌，颂歌

参考例句：

• They sang a hymn of praise to God.他们唱着圣歌，赞美上帝。
• The choir has sung only two verses of the last hymn.合唱团只唱了最后一首赞美诗的两个段落。