Senator Rand Paul, R-KY. Wednesday criticised the Trump administration’s decision to take 10% stake in the struggling chipmaker. Intelcalling investment a “step towards socialism.”
Last month, Intel announced that the US government had invested $8.9 billion in Intel common stock, purchasing 433.3 million shares at a price of $20.47 per share, offering 10% of the company. Intel noted that the prices paid by the government are discounted at current market prices.
Paul said government ownership was a “bad idea.”
“It’s always wrong to say, ‘Well, we have this bad policy, okay, we don’t tolerate a bit of socialism anymore, but we don’t want it anymore,” Paul told CNBC’s “Scoobox” on Wednesday. “I think that’s a bad idea.”
Last month, President Donald Trump said that the government’s interest in chipmakers was “a great deal for America and a lot for Intel.”
Trump has taken increasingly heavier hands in the private sector, raising concerns among conservative lawmakers like Paul, who have long opposed large governments. In August, the Trump administration said the government would chip 15% of certain NVIDIA and advanced micro devices to China. The Pentagon has purchased $400 million in stock stake in Rare Earth Miner MP Material. It also took a “golden share” with US steel as part of its contract to allow Nippon Steel to purchase the US industrial giant.
Among the most vocal supporters in Trump’s Intel proposal Congress was Sen. Bernie Sanders, a self-explained democratic socialist from Vermont. “Taxpayers shouldn’t provide billions of dollars to large, beneficial companies like Intel in return,” Trump’s longtime voice critic Sanders told a news outlet last month.
However, Rand said it was not wise to involve the government in the free market.
“I’m worried that the movement of the free market, which was a big part of the Republican Party, is declining over time,” Rand said.
Watch: Senator Randpole on US Government Interests in Intel: That’s a step towards socialism
