Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: It's a pleasure to have the senior senator from Texas
Speaker 2: with US. Senator John Cornyn is joining us now live
Speaker 2: from Capitol Hill. Senator, welcome back to Bloomberg TV and Radio.
Speaker 2: I'd like to start with the economy and the news
Speaker 2: on the semiconductor space that is getting a lot of
Speaker 2: talk and move in markets around here before we get
Speaker 2: to some of the other issues that we'd love to
Speaker 2: ask you about. In Vidia investing five billion dollars in
Speaker 2: Intel following the President's announcement of a federal stake in
Speaker 2: the chip maker. As well the deals, the President announced
Speaker 2: fifteen percent of China sales from Nvidia and AMD to
Speaker 2: go to the US government. I'm wondering your thoughts on this.
Speaker 2: Is this the best move to shore up domestic semiconductor
Speaker 2: manufacturing or does the Conservative Republican you feel like this
Speaker 2: is state run capitalism.
Speaker 3: Well, as you know, we made a major investment in
Speaker 3: bringing back to our shores American advanced semiconductor manufacturing since
Speaker 3: we only were doing a roughly twelve percent of it,
Speaker 3: and I think many people, including me, recognize this is
Speaker 3: a national security risk when so much it was housed
Speaker 3: in South Korea and Taiwan, and so having INTEL manufacturing
Speaker 3: advanced semiconductors in the United States is a positive thing.
Speaker 3: But of course we've all watched all the problems that
Speaker 3: they've had with there now with a new CEO, and
Speaker 3: they are struggling, it appears, but if you read the
Speaker 3: history of semiconductors, this is nothing new. It's a very
Speaker 3: tough competitive field. But I have no objection. In fact,
Speaker 3: I'm glad to see the video. See that as an
Speaker 3: investment of good business.
Speaker 4: Investment, Senator Cornyan the ten percent stake. However, the US
Speaker 4: government now has an INTEL, as you mentioned, has been
Speaker 4: touted as a measure of nationals cequy gurity. There's other
Speaker 4: areas that are tout as measures of national security, including
Speaker 4: energy independence, something driven by your state and others in
Speaker 4: the South. Does a government need to be taking stakes
Speaker 4: in things like energy companies and specifically oil companies.
Speaker 1: No, I don't think so.
Speaker 3: You know, unfortunately, we do find ourselves vulnerable to the
Speaker 3: supply chains on things like critical minerals and rare earth elements,
Speaker 3: since China processes ninety percent of those and uses that
Speaker 3: as leverage against US and of course, these rare earth
Speaker 3: elements in particular are essential to make the magnets that
Speaker 3: go on virtually every electric motor that runs, and they
Speaker 3: really have us at a tremendous disadvantage, and we just
Speaker 3: I think have not anticipated this in among other things,
Speaker 3: but it's emblematic of the strategy, long term strategy. China
Speaker 3: has had to make the United States dependent on on them.
Speaker 1: For exports and demonstrates that they have.
Speaker 3: A full across the board strategy to try to undermine
Speaker 3: American investment and to maintain that virtual monopoly. So this
Speaker 3: is a this is a pretty worrisome situation. But I
Speaker 3: would say in the energy sector we are doing very well.
Speaker 3: We just needed some of the regulators to take their
Speaker 3: boot off the neck of some of the businesses here
Speaker 3: in this country and they will flourish.
Speaker 2: Senator Corny, and I'd love to ask you what's happening
Speaker 2: in terms of government funding or of course, staring down
Speaker 2: at September thirtieth deadline, can you confirm that the Senate
Speaker 2: is leaving today? That's what we're hearing at Bloomberg, as
Speaker 2: opposed to staying around town for the weekend to maybe
Speaker 2: hammer out a deal or get a vote on a CR.
Speaker 1: What's the latest on this, Well.
Speaker 3: Of course, the deadline isn't until the end of the month,
Speaker 3: so we still have we still have a little more
Speaker 3: than a But the fact of the matter is, right
Speaker 3: now Democrats are making a demand which is completely unreasonable.
Speaker 3: They want us to deal with something more than keeping
Speaker 3: the lights on, keeping the government open, which is what
Speaker 3: a continuing resolution is, as you know, until November the twentieth,
Speaker 3: and they wanted to use this as leverage. A potential
Speaker 3: government shutdown is leverage to extract trillions of dollars of
Speaker 3: additional spending in terms of healthcare subsidies.
Speaker 1: We're happy to have that conversation, but not right.
Speaker 2: Now understood, are you are you heading home tonight? Then
Speaker 2: will you come back next weeks? Has Senator Thune given
Speaker 2: you directions on that front?
Speaker 1: I think that's still up in the air.
Speaker 3: First thing we need to do this afternoon is confirmed
Speaker 3: about forty five nominees to cabinet sub cabinet positions that
Speaker 3: the Democrats have been holy hostage. But I know those
Speaker 3: discussions continue, but no resolution yet.
Speaker 2: Need to run, Senator, But you've seen this movie a
Speaker 2: couple of times. What's your gut tell you, are we
Speaker 2: going to shut down at the end of the month.
Speaker 3: You know, it's a lot of unnecessary drama, And yes,
Speaker 3: I have seen this movie before, and it's embarrassing, frankly,
Speaker 3: because the government and the Congress ought to be able
Speaker 3: to figure out how to keep the lights on, how
Speaker 3: to keep government funded, but unfortunately things have become so
Speaker 3: polarized and so partisan that it's hard to get some
Speaker 3: consensus on something as simple as that.
Speaker 1: You don't sound that confident. Well, I don't.
Speaker 3: Expect to shut down, but right now the demands that
Speaker 3: are being made, I think are unrealistic and we're simply
Speaker 3: not going to go there.
Speaker 2: Senator John Cornyn, Republican from Texas, we thank you for
Speaker 2: being with us to see us when we have more
Speaker 2: time on Bluebird TV and radio.