When Joe Biden signed the Chips and Science Act on August 9, he said;
There’s an analysis that says investment in the Chips and Science Act will create 1 million — more than 1 million construction jobs alone over the next six years building semiconductor factories in America.
A few days later, on August 11, Biden tweeted:
Investments in the CHIPS and Science Law will create more than 1 million construction jobs alone over the next 6 years building semiconductor factories in America.
So now, Biden wasn’t just attributing the 1 million construction jobs claim to “an analysis.” He was stating it as a fact.
It turns out, though, that even Biden’s first, more guarded claim, was a lie. The analysis the White House pointed to when pressed does not predict that anywhere close to 1 million construction jobs will be created by the Chips and Science legislation.
The White House pointed to a 2021 report issued by the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA). One would expect a trade organization like this one to make exaggerated claims about the benefits of legislation it desires.
But SIA wasn’t about to make the absurd claim that 1 million construction jobs would be created by building semiconductor factories. As Glenn Kessler points out, in the pre-pandemic boom period it took four years to get 1 million new jobs from all construction work in the U.S.
What did SIA actually claim? Its report estimates that an investment of $50 billion (comparable to the Chips and Science Act) would create only an additional 6,200 jobs construction jobs. If one adds jobs related to construction (cement manufacturing, for example), the estimate rises to 56,000. Taking the analysis further afield to include what the report calls “indirect and induced” effects of the spending, the report estimates the creation of 120,000 jobs — still a small fraction of the 1 million jobs Biden touted.
And, again, this is, according to SIA’s self-serving report. The former chief economist at the Congressional Budget Office finds the report’s claims “implausible.” She told the Washington Post, “There are. . .positive benefits to expanding U.S. capacity to make chips, now and in the long run, but that benefit doesn’t include expanding the number of jobs.”
The White House eventually admitted to the Washington Post that Biden’s job-creation claim is erroneous. Yet, it has not deleted Biden’s tweet.
The Post’s fact-checking team awarded Biden four Pinocchios for his statements. This rating is reserved for the most dishonest statements the paper fact checks and, the Post being the Post, normally is also reserved for statements by Republicans and conservatives.
But the dishonesty of Biden’s claims and the White House’s unwillingness to delete or correct them left the Post with little choice but to go with four long noses.
Biden’s false claim about the Chips legislation is far from a one-off. In fact, as I argued here, Biden is an inveterate liar.
Old age has slowed Biden down, but not at all in this regard.