President Trump and Congress don’t either. Here’s the reason:
At least four members of Congress, took small business loans, in programs Congress designed.
Known List
- Republican Rep. Roger Williams of Texas, a wealthy businessman who owns auto dealerships, body shops and car washes
- Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri, whose family owns multiple farms and equipment suppliers across the Midwest.
- Democrats Rep. Susie Lee of Nevada, whose husband is CEO of a regional casino developer
- Democrat Rep. Debbie Mucarsel Powell of Florida, whose husband is an executive at a restaurant chain that has since returned the loan.
The Unknown
There are almost certainly more, according to aides and lawmakers. But only the Small Business Administration and Treasury Department have that information, and the Trump administration is refusing to provide any details.
Robust Oversight?
Both Democrats and Republicans have vowed there will be robust oversight of Congress’ spending on coronavirus relief, including its signature loan program.
The oversight is so robust that Trump wants to hide who got the loans.
And since Trump refuses to disclose, it is a safe bet that more Republicans than Democrats, at least in swing districts, took thoise loans.
Mish
At least Trump’s transparency is sufficient: Mish can see right thru him.
It is federal money – Release the names and amount. Sorry that is the price you pay for a handout. And if you deserved it why are you moaning? Many of the companies that deserved it are happy to advertise it.
Maybe they were loaning the money out to Chinese companies.
You know, the ones used by Ivanka Trump.
“Illinois’ housing market was one of the weakest in the nation prior to 2020. But as the state economy has been brought to a sudden standstill and nearly 1.5 million Illinoisans find themselves out of a job, the number of families struggling to make their mortgage payments will surge. https://www.illinoispolicy.org/covid-19-recession-could-double-illinois-delinquent-mortgage-rate-in-2020/
With few enough to be almost nonexistent exceptions, the fewer Americans who “make ‘their’ mortgage payments,” the better for the US economy.
Sorry, but I have no sympathy for Illinois. They created the problems, so it’s up to them to find solutions. My fear is that the solution they “find” will a new administration that bails them out, making the rest of the country pay for their mess.
Mish allows Zerohedge to platform his articles so Mish is a racist and jew hater according to Google so he will be deplatformed soon. Good luck selling gold to pink hats after they designate you a racist!
Not surprising.
DJT canned Glen Fine (Pentagon IG who was chairman of panel to oversee CARES Act) in early April. It is election season and POTUS wants no scrutiny on this $trillions of sausage. One, to protect insiders. Two, give no ammo to opponent.
Because the money was outright stolen. The “loans” will not be repaid. They will be Epstiened.
If a small business qualified for a loan, why does it matter who owns it? Now, if these people have businesses that don’t qualify, and got the loans anyway, that’s a scandal, but if a Representative owns a small business with 50 employees that was hurt badly by Covid, they clearly qualified.
That is exactly the point. How do we taxpayers know whether loans are going to businesses that qualify if they won’t release the names of those that received the money. We are all supposed to just trust the government that everything is kosher and does not require oversight?
Anyone that took out a loan and who didn’t qualify should be either required to return it (if it’s a technical issue) or prosecuted (if it was an intentional abuse of the system). But, if a business was qualified to receive a loan, and used it properly, the question of who owns it should not be an issue.
Transparency.
Taxpayer who is footing the bill has every right to know who they are giving grant / loan too.
No debate.
“But, if a business was qualified to receive a loan, and used it properly, the question of who owns it should not be an issue.”
If Moses had descended from Sinai with clear, unambiguous and timeless definitions of the terms “used it properly” and “qualified,” that would make sense.
But when the guys deciding what constitutes “qualified” and “used it properly,” get to arbitrarily define those terms in ways maximally facilitating themselves taking other people’s money, not so much.
So now Trump gets the blame for not telling the world who got SBA loans. As if he has nothing better to do with wars breaking out, managing the virus situation, trying to keep the economy from crashing, fighting the dems who continue to try anything & everything to make him look bad, etc. now he is expected to monitor the details of SBA loans? Ridiculous.
BTW did anyone notice he just got the ball rolling with an EO on police reform?
That’s gotta be sarcasm. You know it’s not Trump who personally handles all those things right? It’s a list and it can get published. It’s not rocket science. He’s actively preventing oversight. His dictatorial EOs are empty. So many bootlickers who were against Obama’s appointed “Czars” but are chocking on the leather for Trump’s EOs. What a mindless cult.
Really stillCJ?
All Trump has to do is pull a Picard on Mnuchin and tell him to release the data with a “Make it so!”.
I don’t even know what a POTUS does anymore. W, Obama, and Trump all took tons of vacation and basically let the Fed run the show. Trump certainly has lots of time for tweeting, TV watching, and golfing.
There is a fair amount of red/blue perception management, but almost none of it is important. Otherwise, Powell is deciding our future and the MIC still hemorrhages money while it plays world cop.
There is no police powers granted to the Feds by the Constitution. According to the 10th Amendment police powers belong to the States.
Why does Biden like to fondle little girls?
Vast majority of those “loans”were doled out to …You guessed it …Wall Street! Hedge Funds,Bond Funds,Hertz,get the multi million dollar loan and after the bosses take their cut,buy back your shares….CA Ching,add yet another $750 billion check the Fed just doled out to WS!It’s not MAGA it’s MWSGA!
All things doled out by governments, are doled out to the ones best positioned to lobby them. Duh!
I would tend to think they are hiding something bigger. Than this. Knowone seemed to care about that. What about all the senators who had inside info on covid and unloaded stock.
It’s a big club and you ain’t in it. Thanks red/blue teams!
Isn’t it common for thieves to want to hide who stole what?
Why would these ones be any different?
You are right, of course. The most likely reason for this secrecy is to conceal theft. Companies that do not want this money unless it is secret should not be taking the money.
It is disconcerting to see such brazen evidence that the 3 branches of government are no longer keeping each other honest as was originally intended.
Once you have a central bank, over time all economic outcomes are driven solely by its arbitrary actions.
Resulting in everyone with any wealth and resources running in synchronized lockstep to its drumbeat, with any supposed “independence” being merely superficial.
Doesn’t even necessarily mean the central bank wants to play dictator. They simply have no choice in the matter, since by mere virtue of being the money printer, they are the ones who arbitrarily dole out all and any economic and financial rewards.
I think the problem is something akin to regulatory capture. The Central Bank’s original mission of “price stability” and “lender of last resort” seems okay to me, but once “stability” is interpreted as “steadily rising asset prices” and “last resort” is interpreted as “lender that always backstops a policy of overleveraging everything” then there are serious problems. The Central Bank in this case is a slave to economic brinkmanship, always doing what large financial interests want because those interests have arranged for the whole financial system to blow up otherwise.
It is the financial version of the movie “Speed.” There’s a bomb on a bus that arms itself at 50 MPH and if the speed ever drops below 50 MPH after that, then BOOM! Everybody dies. Wouldn’t it have been nice if the Central Bank never allowed the bus to go above 50 MPH in the first place, or better yet never allowed a bomb to be placed under the bus?
Pray tell why “stability” in cell phone prices is some sort of positive….
Price movements, not “stability,” serve as THE signaling and coordination mechanism in any economy. There is ZERO benefit from suppressing this.
The Fed exists for the sole purpose of bailing out dumb people too incompetent to make a living by doing anything of value. Any other supposed excuse for their existence, is nothing but propaganda. They exist for the sole reason that “too dumb and incompetent to make a living doing anything of value” describes 99+% of the children of those who were wealthy even back in the comparatively laissez-faire runup to the Fed funding.
Left to fend for themselves in anything resembling a free market, the idiots wouldn’t last a generation, before being routed around by their superiors in every way, and left bankrupt.
So, enter The Fed. With a mandate to ensure that economic spoils are handed out not as a result of intelligence, effort, insight, ingenuity, creativity ,hard work, “smart” work, productivity nor anything else useful. But rather solely based on who nominally “owns” “assets.” It’s a lot more convenient that way, for the rank idiots who by now “own” everything as a result of Fed redistribution; despite none of them ever having earned any of it by producing anything of value.
Everyone who happen not to be dumber than even the dumbest doorknob (it supposedly takes somewhere around 40 “IQ” to open a door. Well above average anywhere on both Manhattan and in DC..), realizes that, as soon as there exist a “lender of last resort” doling out spoils stolen from others, every day will be another last resort. As Mish puts it: There is unlimited demand for free stuff. If you can get free stuff by fitting some harebrained, idiots-only, definition of “last resort,” ensuring they fit that definition is what people will do. Is what all people will do. All the time, every time, everywhere, always. Entirely predictably to any member of Club Not-dumber-than-doorknobs.