As Washington policymakers block a $15 minimum wage, stall new infrastructure investments, and halt student debt relief initiatives, they may be nearing agreement on an issue that has bipartisan support: funneling billions of federal dollars to companies already raking in huge profits.

In this latest iteration of Bipartisan Bailoutism, party leaders are depicting the initiative as a populist crusade to bolster America’s economic competition with China and strengthen national security. The rhetoric obscures how the policy is simply a no-strings-attached corporate subsidy to a cash-rich industry that has become notorious for offshoring manufacturing jobs and spending more on enriching shareholders than on capital investments — all while spending big on lobbying and campaign contributions.

This week, the Senate is considering legislation offered by Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) that would deliver $52 billion to microchip manufacturers in the name of fortifying an industry seen as crucial to national security and economic development in the coming decades. The legislation represents the third in a series of high-profile corporate bailouts in the last decade, following the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program that enriched Wall Street banks and the 2020 CARES Act, which created massive Federal Reserve bailout funds for industry under the guise of COVID-19 relief.