covid bailout 2 CARES

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">see three covid bail bill heroes</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">html "triggered"</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see grover and other rw free mkt orgs?!</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">an 3 22</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic inflicted widespread economic pain in the United States, and the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was designed to alleviate the suffering that many businesses experienced. But PPP was abused by some people who didn’t really need the help, and NBC News reporters Ken Dilanian and Laura Strickler examine some of those abuses in an <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/ncna1279664" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">article published on March 28</a>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some fraudsters, Dilanian and Stricker note, used PPP funds to purchase “Lamborghinis, Ferraris and Bentleys” as well as “Teslas.”</font></p><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“They came into their riches by participating in what experts say is the theft of as much as $80 billion — or about 10% — of the $800 billion handed out in a COVID relief plan known as the</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP,”</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> the NBC News reporters explain.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> “That’s on top of the $90 billion to $400 billion believed to have been stolen from the $900 billion COVID unemployment relief program </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">— at least half taken by international fraudsters — as NBC News reported last year. And another $80 billion potentially pilfered from a separate COVID disaster relief program. The prevalence of COVID relief fraud has been known for some time, but the enormous scope and its disturbing implications are only now becoming clear.”</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dilanian and Strickler add, “Even if the highest estimates are inflated, the total fraud in all COVID relief funds amounts to a mind-boggling sum of taxpayer money that could rival the $579 billion in federal funds included in President Joe Biden’s massive ten-year infrastructure spending plan, according to prosecutors, government watchdogs and private experts who are trying to plug the leaks.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Attorney Matthew Schneider, a former federal prosecutor, describes these PPP abuses as “the biggest fraud in a generation.” And Michael Horowitz, inspector general for the U.S. Department of Justice, told NBC News’ Lester Holt, “What didn't happen was even minimal checks to make sure that the money was getting to the right people at the right time.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">PPP, Dilanian and Strickler note, “authorized banks and other financial institutions to make government-backed loans to businesses — loans that were to be forgiven if the companies spent the money on business expenses.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Nearly 10 million such loans have already been forgiven,” the reporters observe. “Many of the loans-turned-grants were for millions of dollars, public records show. Experts say millions of borrowers inflated their numbers of employees or created companies out of whole cloth. For much of 2020, lenders did little to verify the applications, prosecutors and experts say.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Juan Gonzalez, a federal prosecutor for the Southern District of Florida, stresses that those who committed PPP fraud did a tremendous disservice to Americans who legitimately needed financial relief because of the pandemic.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gonzalez told NBC News, “This is billions of taxpayer dollars that has been stripped from them. And more angry should be the people who did lose their jobs, who worked for businesses that couldn't apply for this money because it was gone. Those are really the ones who should be the angriest of all.”</font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10 21 an</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">joel Osteen is a multi-millionaire, but that didn't stop him from taking full advantage of the Paycheck Protection Program in 2020. The New York Daily News, however, reports that <b>Osteen has <a href="https://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ny-joel-osteen-multimillionaire-lakewood-church-repays-4-million-ppp-loans-20211011-6viikyot5bg7bnnor5ruogit3e-story.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" class="rm-stats-tracked" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">returned the $4.4 million</a> it received in PPP loans.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Osteen, who operates Lakewood Church in Houston, generated a lot of controversy when he took that PPP money — as the Paycheck Protection Program was designed to help small businesses that were struggling financially because of the COVID-19 pandemic. And Lakewood is not a small business; it is a<b> megachurch with hundreds of employees.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Daily News' Theresa Braine explains, <b>"The loans are meant for businesses with fewer than 500 employees, but the coronavirus funds were distinguished by the number of religious institutions that took advantage of the funds. In Texas alone, more than 1000 religious groups got money from the federal program, </b>the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported last December."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Osteen, Braine notes, has a reported net worth of $100 million and drives a Ferrari.</b></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">The Lakewood pastor has been a leading proponent of what is known as "prosperity theology" or "the prosperity gospel" in evangelical Christianity. It teaches that the rich are rich because God has blessed them, and prosperity theology — which equates affluence with morality and poverty with immorality — is highly controversial among Christians.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Critics of prosperity theology argue that its celebration of greed and materialism is unbiblical, pointing to quotes from the Holy Bible such as "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (Matthew 19:24) and "the love of money is the root of all evil" (Timothy 6:10).</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/trucking-company/">https://www.alternet.org/2021/10/trucking-company/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/gop-governors">https://www.alternet.org/2021/05/gop-governors</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">kos</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">note criminalization</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The flood of Republican-controlled states cutting off the federal unemployment benefits supplement will lead to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/13/politics/pandemic-unemployment-benefits-gop/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" title="" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">nearly 2 million people losing payments</a> before the September cutoff passed by Congress. The nearly 1.4 million people in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Assistance programs will lose everything they're currently getting, while people on traditional unemployment insurance will lose the $300 a week above their state's regular benefits.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"These changes have the potential to drastically scale back assistance to jobless workers far too early in the recovery,"</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Andrew Stettner, senior fellow at The Century Foundation, told CNN. "</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nationally, there are still 16.8 million workers on one of the unemployment programs, and the nation is still short 8 million-plus jobs from the start of the pandemic."</span></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to Stettner's calculations, the early cutoffs will strip billions of dollars from jobless workers. If every state that has announced it's refusing the federal supplement did so starting on June 12, it would be $10.8 billion, but several states have announced later cutoff dates.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The Republican message is that this is what's needed because too many people are sitting home living large on unemployment aid and are too lazy to work. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/05/13/unemployment-benefits-minimum-wage-work/?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_source=twitter" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">In reality, writes Adam Chandler</a> at <em>The Washington Post</em>, "In the past year alone, <a href="https://tobin.yale.edu/sites/default/files/files/C-19%20Articles/CARES-UI_identification_vF(1).pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">study</a> after <a href="https://www.jec.senate.gov/public/cache/files/d995d820-20d6-4a24-b93f-b1a16ce2b0d2/studies-show-600-weekly-enhanced-unemployment-benefit-has-not-slowed-labor-market-recovery-final.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">study</a> has debunked the myth that the emergency benefits and occasional payments provided by the government are disincentivizing people from returning to the labor force en masse."</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Back when the federal government was adding $600 a week to unemployment benefits—a measure passed by a Republican Senate and signed by Donald Trump—a <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w27613.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">study by Yale economists</a> found "no evidence that high UI [unemployment insurance] replacement rates drove job losses or slowed rehiring.</b>" Also last summer, University of Massachusetts economist Arindrajit Dube looked at unemployed workers without a college degree. "Overall," he concluded, "these findings do not provide evidence supporting the claim that the [Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation] has held back the labor market recovery."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And, Chandler notes, even these supposedly lavish unemployment benefits are not eradicating hunger: "According to a Census Bureau survey last month, nearly 1 in 3 Americans on unemployment said they <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-economy-benefits/one-in-three-americans-on-unemployment-benefits-struggle-to-pay-for-food-housing-survey-idUSKBN2B12NM" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">were still failing to cover</a> routine expenses such as food, housing and medical treatments."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So studies show that the emergency benefits aren't keeping lazy people from looking for work. Surveys show that people are not living large, or even necessarily making ends meet. But history gives us a context for the persistent claims that that's what's going on, as <b>AFL-CIO economist William Spriggs</b> pointed out: [twt]</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">republicans can't reproduce those conditions, but they can use low or no unemployment benefits to force people back into minimum-wage and unsafe jobs—and the present-day effort also echoes the past in the disproportionately Black and Latino workers it targets, after 14 months in which Black and Latino people have disproportionately suffered and died as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">So far, Montana, South Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, North Dakota, Missouri, Iowa, Idaho, Tennessee, Wyoming, South Dakota, Utah, Georgia, Arizona, and Ohio have announced cutoff dates ranging from June 12 to July 10</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. More states could follow, raising the number of people in economic pain as a direct result of Republican lies about the unemployment situation.</span></font></p><div class="around-the-web" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="from-your-siteheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FROM YOUR SITE ARTICLES</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="from-your-siteitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/noem/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Pandemic-downplaying GOP governor's grandmother dies in COVID ... ›</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2021/03/republican-governors/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">New study finds Covid-19 death rates were higher in states with ... ›</a></li><li class="from-your-siteitem"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/new-polling-reveals-gop-governors-disastrous-handling-of-covid-19-is-coming-back-to-bite-them/" class="from-your-sitelink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">New polling reveals GOP governors' disastrous handling of COVID ... ›</a></li></ul><div class="around-the-webheadline" style="font-weight: 700; text-transform: uppercase; margin-top: 10px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RELATED ARTICLES AROUND THE WEB</font></div><ul class="around-the-weblist" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; display: inline-block; width: 589.446px; list-style: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><li class="around-the-webitem"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/01/us/01tenure.html" class="around-the-weblink" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; font-weight: lighter; line-height: normal; display: inline-block; margin-top: 10px;">Teacher Tenure Targeted by G.O.P. 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</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-kushner-ppp/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/12/trump-kushner-ppp/</a></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">corrupt</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div><p align="left" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.25em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>=</strong></font></p><p align="left" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.25em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 1020</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>marjorie Taylor Greene, a <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/12/trump-says-qanon-supporter-condemned-by-gop-leaders-for-racist-videos-is-future-republican-star/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">QAnon conspiracy theorist</a> and Republican candidate who is expected to win her House race in Georgia next month, donated $450,000 to her own campaign after receiving a six-figure Paycheck Protection Program loan from the government for her construction company.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greene, who has <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/06/16/gop-purges-right-wing-members-from-congress--to-replace-them-with-even-more-radical-candidates/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">promoted the QAnon conspiracy theory</a> and <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/08/12/trump-says-qanon-supporter-condemned-by-gop-leaders-for-racist-videos-is-future-republican-star/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">posted videos</a> attacking Black people, Muslims and Jews, won the Republican primary in Georgia's 14th congressional district in August despite opposition from Republican leaders. She is almost certain to take over the seat now held by retiring Republican Rep. Tom Graves, especially after her <a href="https://twitter.com/KevinVanAusdal/status/1304489108736270337?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1304489108736270337%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthehill.com%2Fhomenews%2Fcampaign%2F516068-democrat-in-race-against-marjorie-taylo" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Democratic opponent dropped out of the race last month</a> in a district President Trump carried by 50 points. Trump has since praised Greene as a <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1293525010523578375?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1293525010523578375%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.salon.com%2F2020%2F08%2F12%2Ftrump-says-qanon-supporter-condemned-by-gop-lead" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">"future Republican star."</a></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greene's bid was <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/qanon-republican-party-congress.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">partially funded</a> by a super PAC allied with the House Freedom Caucus, which has <a href="https://justthenews.com/government/congress/congressman-biggs-last-covid-19-stimulus-package-shouldve-absolutely-been-final" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">opposed additional funding</a> to provide coronavirus relief to Americans. Greene has opposed additional spending as well, declaring in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/MarjorieTaylorGreene/videos/229173321514272" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Facebook video</a> that "the best stimulus for Americans is allowing Americans to go back to work!"</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite her opposition to the stimulus funding and the PPP, her family's company, Taylor Commercial, received a six-figure PPP loan worth between <a href="https://twitter.com/stphnfwlr/status/1280495060417679366" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$150,000 and $350,000</a> earlier this year. <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/qanon-republican-party-congress.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">New York Magazine</a> reported that her name had stopped appearing on the company's registration forms in 2012 but was added back in 2019.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greene, who had loaned her campaign <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/09/qanon-republican-party-congress.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$900,000</a>, donated $450,000 to her campaign about two months after the PPP loan, according to <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&committee_id=C00708289&contributor_name=greene&two_year_transaction_period=2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Federal Election Commission records</a>.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Her main opponent in the Republican primary, neurosurgeon John Cowan, raised questions about the donation during the campaign.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Earlier this week, you said that you didn't want Congress to pass more COVID-related emergency funds for businesses. But your business took as much as $350,000 in PPP loans from the federal government at the same time you were putting $900,000 into your campaign," <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=517lxn2Onu8&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=JohnCowan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Cowan told Greene during a debate in July</a>. "So if you don't need the money and you have the discretionary funds, will you commit to returning that money to the citizens?"</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greene accused Cowan of being "disconnected" from business owners and "people who have struggled during this government shutdown."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I am appalled at the fact that you cannot comprehend that I have a construction company and we can't do construction remotely at home," she said, not denying that she opposed the very funds that her company drew from.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"Construction companies were considered essential and they didn't shut down," Cowan shot back. "So you were making plenty of money — plus you used $900,000 of your own money during the campaign. Don't you think you had a little extra to pay your employees? I find it disingenuous that you took money from taxpayers to pay for your employees while you were paying yourself."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Spencer Hogg, Cowan's campaign manager, later said in a statement that Greene's company "wasn't one of those facing hardships."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"She says she's a fiscal conservative, she said last week that she opposed additional emergency funding for businesses forced to close because of COVID, but as we've seen on multiple issues, Marjorie doesn't let principle interfere with self-interest," <a href="https://cowanforcongress.com/cowan-greene-should-return-companys-ppp-loan/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">he said in a statement</a>. "If she has enough money to spend nearly $1 million to advance her own political ambitions, then she has enough to pay her employees, particularly in an industry that didn't have to stop working during the lockdown."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greene's campaign did not respond to questions from Salon.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Greene is not the only Republican candidate who has self-funded a campaign while taking PPP loans.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>Former Rep. Darrell Issa, </b>R-Calif., <a href="https://laprensa-sandiego.org/issa-took-ppp-loan-then-loaned-more-money-to-his-campaign/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">received a PPP loan</a> for one of his companies worth between $150,000 and $350,000 in May, weeks before he loaned his campaign $150,000. Issa, who has a net worth of $280 million to $400 million and was the richest member of Congress between 2000 and 2018, is trying to stage a political comeback by running for the Southern California seat recently vacated by convicted former Rep. Duncan Hunter, a Republican.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Issa's Democratic opponent ,Ammar Campa-Najjar, called for <a href="https://www.pe.com/2020/09/30/ammar-campa-najjar-darrell-issa-answer-questions-in-50th-congressional-district-race/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">"millionaires like Darrell Issa"</a> to be banned from collecting PPP loans during a debate last week.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Issa said at the debate that he <a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/politics/story/2020-10-01/issa-campa-najjar-talk-healthcare-homelessness-and-pandemic-response-during-50th-district-debate" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">opposed funding the PPP entirely</a>, arguing it would be "foolhardy" and that "paying people not to work has run its course."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another California Republican candidate, Michelle Steele, also received a PPP loan worth between <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/coronavirus/bailouts/loans/shawn-steel-law-firm-inc-d301396849f349f47b1dde27eed482a2" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">$150,000 and $350,000</a> in April for her family law firm. She <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&committee_id=C00704981&contributor_name=michelle+steel&contributor_name=shawn+steel&two_year_transaction_period=2020&min_date=01%2F01%2F2019&max_date=12%2F31%2F2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">donated $500,000</a> to her campaign in California's 48th congressional district against Rep. Harley Rouda, a Democratic freshman narrowly elected in the 2018 "blue wave."</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Vern Buchanan, a Florida Republican, received PPP loans <a href="https://www.tampabay.com/florida-politics/buzz/2020/07/06/vern-buchanans-car-dealerships-received-up-to-7-million-in-federal-coronavirus-aid/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">worth up to $7 million</a> for his auto dealerships before <a href="https://www.fec.gov/data/receipts/?data_type=processed&committee_id=C00412759&contributor_name=buchanan%2C+vern&two_year_transaction_period=2020&min_date=01%2F01%2F2019&max_date=12%2F31%2F2020" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">donating $250,000</a> to his campaign.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Accountable.US, a progressive watchdog group that tracks recipients of PPP loans, called on all four candidates to return the money to taxpayers.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The PPP program was meant to save jobs, not bail out business owners looking for a gig in D.C.," spokesman Derek Martin said in a statement to Salon. "These candidates should return this money and tell the president to get back to work on a relief bill that will help all Americans during this pandemic."</font></p><p align="left" style="margin: 0px 0px 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); line-height: 1.25em; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>=</strong></font></p></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/debt-collectors-have-made-a-fortune-this-year-now-theyre-coming-for-more/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/debt-collectors-have-made-a-fortune-this-year-now-theyre-coming-for-more/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Earlier this year, the pandemic swept across the country, killing 100,000 Americans by the spring, shuttering businesses and schools, and forcing people into their homes. It was a great time to be a debt collector.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In August, Encore Capital, the largest debt buyer in the country, announced that it had doubled its previous record for earnings in a quarter.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> It primarily had the CARES Act to thank</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">: The bill delivered hundreds of billions of dollars worth of stimulus checks and bulked-up unemployment benefits to Americans, while easing pressures on them by halting foreclosures, evictions and student loan payments. <b style="">There was no ban on collections of old credit card bills, Encore's specialty.</b></span></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the same time, the pandemic compelled households to cut spending. Finding themselves with enough money to settle old debts, people responded to collectors' calls and letters. Debt-buying executives couldn't help marveling at their good fortune. All this created “</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">a perfect storm from a cash perspective,</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">" the CEO of Portfolio Recovery Associates, Encore's main competitor, told Wall Street analysts.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After its record second quarter, analysts expect Encore to blow past $200 million in profit this year and reward stockholders with 40% earnings growth compared with last year. Portfolio Recovery is set for similar growth. The share prices of both have soared off their early April lows.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Investors didn't even show much concern when, in early September, the <b>Consumer Financial Protection Bureau <span style="transition-property: color, background, opacity;"><a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-sues-debt-collectors-and-debt-buyers-encore-capital-group-et-al" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;" /></span><a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-sues-debt-collectors-and-debt-buyers-encore-capital-group-et-al" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">sued Encore,</a></b><a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-sues-debt-collectors-and-debt-buyers-encore-capital-group-et-al" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"> saying that it had broken the terms of a consent agreement struck in 2015. </a></span><a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-sues-debt-collectors-and-debt-buyers-encore-capital-group-et-al" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;"><b>The agency had previously charged the company with “pressuring consumers with false statements and churning out lawsuits using robo-signed court documents," as it <span style="transition-property: color, background, opacity;" /></b></a><b><a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/newsroom/cfpb-takes-action-against-the-two-largest-debt-buyers-for-using-deceptive-tactics-to-collect-bad-debts" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">said at the time. (In </a><a href="https://encorecapital.gcs-web.com/node/17156/pdf" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">a statement</a>, Encore said the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">CFPB</span>'s recent suit was unnecessary because it had fixed the alleged problems “years ago.")</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In recent months, the only real bad news for debt buyers was that local courts across the country temporarily shut down. Debt collection lawsuits provide a key source of revenue for the companies, a way to extract payment from consumers, typically low-income, who don't offer it up.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But now even that hiccup is over. After a bit of a lull in the spring, Encore and other debt buyers are back at it, filing suits by the thousands every week, according to ProPublica's analysis of state court filings.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In August alone, Encore filed about 1,000 suits in Indiana and over 2,000 suits in the metro Atlanta area. Other debt buyers jumped back in as well. In Chicago, Portfolio Recovery filed over 3,000 suits in July, while LVNV, a major debt buyer privately owned by Sherman Financial Group, filed over 2,700 suits in Maryland in August. For all these companies, ProPublica found, the<b> volume was well above the number they'd filed before the coronavirus arrived,</b> in January or February of this year. No national numbers on suits exist.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In statements, the companies said they have been actively working with consumers during the COVID-19 pandemic and only sue as a last resort on a small portion of accounts.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Elizabeth A. Kersey, a spokesperson for Portfolio Recovery, said the company's hardship program “allows for the suspension of collection efforts for ninety (90) days upon notification of a hardship event." The company is currently not seeking new orders to seize debtors' wages or bank account funds, she said.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ryan Bell, an Encore executive, said, “We have consistently and proactively communicated to consumers the various relief options we've put in place in response to COVID-19, including temporarily stopping collections." The company said it had stopped seeking orders to garnish bank accounts. It is, however, seizing wages.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sherman Financial did not respond to requests for comment.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>If Congress is unable to pass any further stimulus , unemployment is likely to remain high. In that scenario, debt buying companies and the banks that sell defaulted accounts to them expect more Americans to fall behind on their credit card bills over the coming months.</b></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Even that scenario turns out to be rosy for the debt buyers. While good times can mean that Encore collects on more debt than it expected, bad times typically bring a glut of people suffering under loans they cannot repay.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The result is that Encore can scoop up the raw materials for its profit machine — defaulted accounts — more cheaply. Or as Encore CEO Ashish Masih put it to Wall Street: The company is “particularly excited about the prospects for increased supply in the future."</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The same giant debt buyers known for fighting consumer protection laws at every turn have been raking in cash during this pandemic," Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass, told ProPublica</b>. “They are now licking their chops in anticipation of profiting even more off families who have their hours further cut or can't find a job, and can't keep up with their bills or their mortgage. This is disgraceful and reinforces the need for Congress to protect consumers and small businesses from this predatory behavior."</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In recent years, Encore has bought around 2 million to 3 million U.S. accounts per year, according to public filings. Last year, on average, the company paid 8.6 cents on the dollar for each account. <b>For a typical debt of $3,142, Encore paid $271</b>.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">To earn a profit on that investment, Encore and other debt buyers pursue debtors in near perpetuity. Encore is still collecting tens of millions of dollars each year from debts it bought in 2009 or earlier. The key to that persistence is the courts.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Since the early 2000s, debt buyers have <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/so-sue-them-what-weve-learned-about-the-debt-collection-lawsuit-machine" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">flooded local courts nationwide with suits</a>. The companies regularly account for more than a quarter of all debt collection cases in a given jurisdiction</b>, according to ProPublica's review of collection filings over several states.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That disproportionate presence has been particularly apparent in recent months, as the banks themselves have mostly opted to suspend filing new suits. In normal times, <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/at-capital-one-easy-credit-and-abundant-lawsuits" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">Capital One files far more lawsuits than other banks</a>, in numbers similar to those filed by Encore and Portfolio Recovery. But since March, although Capital One <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/capital-one-and-other-debt-collectors-are-still-coming-for-millions-of-americans" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;">continued to seize pay via garnishments secured before COVID-19 struck</a>, it has largely stopped filing new suits.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">ProPublica did find one exception among the major banks that commonly file a significant number of suits: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Citigroup</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">, which resumed filing suits at its normal levels in July</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. The bank, for instance, filed over 200 suits in Oklahoma in August, more than it had filed there in January and February combined.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a statement, Citi spokesperson Jennifer Bombardier said the bank has a special assistance program for customers impacted by COVID-19 and that it is not seeking to garnish the bank accounts of customers it has sued. The bank also did not sell charged-off accounts to debt buyers “for up to 120 days" in the states “most impacted by COVID-19," she said....</font></p></div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"> =</font></p></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">how can Mcconn  he stall right before election?  isn't his state hard-est hit? wasn't some small stopgap passed?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><h1 class="widgetheadline h1" style="margin: 10px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; cursor: pointer; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a class="widgetheadline-text custom-post-headline" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/10/survey-shows-60-of-us-families-struggling-to-get-by-as-mcconnell-dismisses-new-covid-19-relief-bill/" aria-label="Survey shows 60% of US families struggling to get by as McConnell dismisses new COVID-19 relief bill" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" word-break="word-break" break-word="break-word" overflow-wrap="overflow-wrap" font-size="font-size" px="px" line-height="line-height"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Survey shows 60% of US families struggling to get by as McConnell dismisses new COVID-19 relief bill</font></a></h1><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div class="social-author clearfix" style="margin-top: 10px; display: inline-block; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/julia-conley" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Julia Conley</a> <a class="social-authorname" href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams" style="text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 1; transition: color 0.25s ease 0s, background 0.25s ease 0s, opacity 0.25s ease 0s; overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.4; display: inline; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;">Common Dreams</a></font></div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><div class="social-date" style="margin-top: 8px; display: inline-block; vertical-align: top; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> <span class="social-date__text" style="top: 3px; position: relative; line-height: 1; left: -3px;">October 01, 2020</span></div><div class="body js-expandable clearfix js-listicle-body css-listicle-body-2647877649" style="margin-top: 10px; -webkit-box-orient: vertical; text-overflow: ellipsis; display: -webkit-box; -webkit-line-clamp: 4; overflow: hidden; line-height: 31px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="body-description"><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the Senate floor Wednesday, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated once again that he has no intention of providing badly-needed aid to struggling families across the U.S. even as new research found that nearly two-thirds of households with children are</font></p></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/9-days-from-hell-the-gops-dark-vision-for-the-u-s-is-taking-us-to-the-brink-again">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/9-days-from-hell-the-gops-dark-vision-for-the-u-s-is-taking-us-to-the-brink-again</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">kos</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">an
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">can they just not help themselves to helping themselves to whatever they can grab?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">i<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/invisible-company-owned-by-rudy-giuliani-got-taxpayer-backed-ppp-money-but-lists-no-employees-was-it-fraud/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">nvisible company owned by Rudy Giuliani got taxpayer-backed PPP money — but lists no employees. Was it fraud?</a></font></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/rogersollenberger/" title="Posts by Roger Sollenberger" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Roger Sollenberger</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/salon/" title="Posts by Salon " class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Salon </a></span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">September 17, 2020</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A payroll company owned by Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, took between $150,000 and $350,000 in taxpayer-backed emergency small business loans this spring. It’s unclear what Giuliani did with the money. The loan reveals…</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/republicans-disgraceful-relief-bill-fails-heres-why-it-was-a-sham/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Republicans’ ‘disgraceful’ relief bill fails — here’s why it was a sham</font></a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/julia-conley/" title="Posts by Julia Conley" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Julia Conley</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams/" title="Posts by Common Dreams" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Common Dreams</a> </span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">September 11, 2020</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s attempt to pass the so-called “skinny” coronavirus relief plan—prioritizing corporations over the health, safety, and livelihoods of working families—failed on Thursday, advocacy groups…</font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">#3 HEALS ? mcconn</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">---</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/the-end-of-oil-adds-to-fossil-fuel-glut-but-19-relief-money-flows-to-oil-industry/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/09/the-end-of-oil-adds-to-fossil-fuel-glut-but-19-relief-money-flows-to-oil-industry/</a></div><div>
</div><div>a<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">s the coronavirus pandemic contributes to a glut of fossil fuels, groups like Greenpeace are calling on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to ban fossil fuel interests from his campaign and administration, if he wins, even as he recently declared at a campaign stop that he “will not ban fracking.” We discuss the politics of fossil fuels with reporter Antonia Juhasz, who says the end of oil could be near, and look at how the industry has profited from the</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">COVID</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">bailout. “The pandemic has taken essentially every weakness that already existed in the oil industry and then made each of them much, much worse, leaving the oil industry in a situation where I would argue it is at its weakest since its inception,” she says.</span></div><div><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">
</strong></div><div><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">GOODMAN:</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Longtime Massachusetts senator and Green New Deal champion Ed Markey won his primary against challenger Congressmember Joe Kennedy III Tuesday, marking a victory for progressives and the first time a Kennedy has lost an election in the state of Massachusetts. Senator Markey secured 54% of the vote in a primary race seen by many as a showdown between the Democratic establishment and its new and growing progressive wing. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi endorsed Kennedy, while Markey had the support of New York Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the youth-led Sunrise Movement. The Sunrise Movement tweeted in response to the victory, quote, “After winning elections across the country, you think we’re gonna stop now? They wish. We will protest outside the halls of Congress while our allies on the inside negotiate the Green New Deal,” they said.</span></div><div class="alt_ad_block true_ad_free story-page-in-content-graph-4" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="alt_ad_msg" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 10px 0px; padding: 10px; background: rgb(234, 234, 234);"><div class="header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 5px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: center;">AD REMOVED FOR SUBSCRIBED USER</div></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">This comes as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he would not ban fracking during a speech in Pittsburgh. A group of 145 organizations, including Sunrise Movement and Greenpeace, have released a <a href="https://oilchangeusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Letter-to-VP-Biden-%E2%80%94-No-Fossil-Fuel-Representatives.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">letter</a> calling on Biden to ban fossil fuel interests from his campaign and administration, if he wins. The letter reads, quote, “To advance environmental justice, you must stand up to fossil fuel CEOs, stop the expansion of oil, gas and coal production, and rapidly transition us away from fossil fuels,” unquote.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">This comes as the global oil industry is in crisis with falling demand and crashing prices exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic. Despite this, fossil fuel companies continue to pump out an excess of oil, much of it stored on tankers in the ocean. In May, as 390 million barrels of oil and gas sat in storage on the world’s oceans, Greenpeace activists sailed out along the San Francisco Bay, unfurling a banner saying “Oil Is Over! The Future Is Up to You.”</font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><strong style="background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); font-style: normal; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">GREENPEACE ACTIVIST:</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> I’m here in San Francisco Bay, where floating oil storage tankers are now idling, storing oil that no one wants and where we have nowhere to put.</span></font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">AMY GOODMAN:</strong> Despite this, Congress has poured billions of dollars of COVID relief funds into bailing out the fossil fuel industry.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">We go now to Boulder, Colorado, where we’re joined by Antonia Juhasz, an oil and energy reporter, a Bertha fellow in investigative journalism. And her recent <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2020-5-september-october/feature/end-oil-near" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">cover story</a> for <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sierra</em> magazine is “The End of Oil Is Near,” along with another <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/bailout-billions-dollars-federal-covid-19-relief-money-flow-oil-industry" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">report</a>, “Bailout: Billions of Dollars of Federal COVID-19 Relief Money Flow to the Oil Industry.” She’s the author of several books, most recently, <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Black Tide: The Devastating Impact of the Gulf Oil Spill</span>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Antonia, welcome back to <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Democracy Now!</em> Let’s start with the pandemic and this glut of oil. I don’t know if people realize that — some call them armadas of oil tankers, are docked off coasts, everywhere from the United States to Africa to Asia. Explain what the pandemic — how it relates to the oil industry.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ANTONIA JUHASZ:</strong> Well, I think the most important place to start — and thanks for having me on this morning — is that the problems that have been plaguing the oil industry, that have led to the glut in oil that we’re experiencing right now, well precede the COVID-19 pandemic, that the pandemic has taken essentially every weakness that already existed in the oil industry and then made each of them much, much worse, leaving the oil industry in a situation where it is right now, where I would argue it is at its weakest since its inception, and, essentially, public policy and public will will now determine the fate of the oil industry, period.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">And how we got to this place, where the height of this problem was in June with just oil tankers stacked up — anyone who lived on a coast would have seen pretty much these armadas of oil tankers that were holding oil. How we got to that place was, essentially, years of the oil industry obsessively overproducing a product of shrinking value and shrinking demand. So, starting in 2015, the growth in demand for oil worldwide started to fall, and it fell precipitously from 2017 to 2019. The price of oil was falling, but the companies and the countries just kept producing more and more and more and more, with the United States one of the leading countries.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>At the same time, you’ve got movements that are successfully weakening demand, desperately trying to get off this product, increasing the value and accessibility of alternatives, reducing the political payoff for supporting the oil industry, and the economic payoffs just dwindling, the companies falling in profits, falling in share value, investors not wanting to put money backing these companies’ plays, and a worse and worse and worse and worse financial situation for the companies and the countries producing it. But they kept producing, so you have this glut of buildup.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Then comes COVID-19. COVID-19 happens. We’re all in lockdown. Demand for oil products just craters into the ground. And at the same time, the companies and the countries keep producing more oil, which led to an even greater glut, which led to the oil being stored offshore in tankers.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">AMY GOODMAN:</strong> And yet you have COVID-19 money, with how many tens of millions of people out of work, people desperate for support, small businesses. So much of that COVID money is going to bail out the largest corporations, oil corporations.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ANTONIA JUHASZ:</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Yeah.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> So, you had — first you had the Trump administration say, and Trump himself say, “We’re going to design a ballot specifically for the oil and gas industry.” And there was tremendous pushback against that in the public, and Democrats in Congress said, “No, that’s not going to happen.” So, instead, what we ended up getting is three, essentially, stealth mechanisms that have really heavily tried to prop up this industry, that, left without that support, we would see a much greater shrinkage than we’re seeing right now, although we’re already seeing a good deal of shrinkage.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>But so, these three mechanisms</b> were, first, in the CARES Act, the Paycheck Protection Program, documented — a research organization did research for me for my <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sierra</em> magazine articles, that found 7,000 oil and gas companies receiving as much as $7 billion in Paycheck Protection Program money. Because the oil and gas industry is dominated by white men, globally and nationally — those are the people that own the companies, and in the U.S. a good deal of the workforce is white men — that also contributed to the overall bias of the PPP program towards white male-owned businesses, so they got Paycheck Protection Program money, which has propped up a lot of companies that wouldn’t — certainly wouldn’t have made it on their own.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Then you had tax loopholes snuck into the CARES Act, which Democrats are trying to close in this next version of the CARES Act, that allowed over $3 billion to go to at least 50 publicly traded oil and gas companies, and probably many, many more, because we only know about the publicly traded ones because they have to report it in their reports to the Security Exchange Commission, and private companies don’t have to do that.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But I would say the most problematic pot is this unprecedented move to have the Federal Reserve, for the first time — so, excuse me, the American taxpayer, through the Federal Reserve, for the first time, now become owners in oil company deb</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">t. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">So, the Federal Reserve set up, through BlackRock, several different mechanisms to try to prop up the economy. And through two measures, the oil industry has received inordinate support. And the research group InfluenceMap looked at one of these mechanisms and found that the Federal Reserve’s funding is overweighted in fossil fuels. <b>So, through BlackRock, you and I, the American taxpayer, are now owners in debt, through the Fed, of Exxon, of Chevron, of Energy Transfer Partners, of Phillips 66, of Schlumberger, </b>which is a company that just moved itself out of U.S. fracking altogether, after we bought up their debt.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>So we are literally, through the Federal Reserve, propping up the oil industry at a time when, you know, for a huge host of reasons — climate crisis, environmental justice, the lives of people who live next to oil and gas facilities — that we need to allow this industry to do what it would be doing on its own anyway, which is going away, because the world is trying — and succeeding — in moving away from this resource.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">And what the Trump administration — and what one of the analysts I spoke with, Alexis Goldstein, who looks at these markets, said, you know, what seems to be clear is that the influence of the Trump administration seems to have been influencing the Federal Reserve, which it shouldn’t be, to overweight this support for the oil and gas industry.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">AMY GOODMAN:</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> At the same time, Antonia, you have ExxonMobil dropping — was dropped from the Dow Jones Industrial Average after 92 years, overtaken by tech companies. BP has announced they’ll cut oil and natural gas production by 40% in a decade. What do these things indicate?</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ANTONIA JUHASZ:</strong> So, you know, this ExxonMobil was one of the founding companies within the Dow Jones Industrial Average in its earlier incarnation, Standard Oil of New Jersey, which means, essentially, the Standard Oil Company, the original oil and gas company, which then became Exxon and Mobil — and its different pieces are all of the major oil companies — BP is a former piece of the Standard Oil Company — that ExxonMobil, its largest piece, is now — its stock is so weak that it’s essentially irrelevant to the U.S. economy, is what that is saying. Its stock is that weak.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">And that is a clear indication that all of the work that has gone into exposing the harms of the oil industry, working to get banks and investors to shift their money away from it, to shift political power — to shift the political power that this industry operates and to move away from its products, is succeeding.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>And BP’s announcement that it is going to, in 10 years, reduce oil production by 40% is significant</b>. It’s a clear indication of the weakness of this product. But it’s also a reflection of a couple other important things. The first is that there’s different reporting requirements on companies in Europe. So, BP and Shell are responsible for telling the public what they expect to see in the future for the price of oil and for the value of their product. And when they had to report in this last quarter that they see no value, essentially, or very much reduced value for their product moving forward,<b> they had to account for those losses, which, in the case of BP and Shell, was $22 billion for Shell in losses and nearly $17 billion in losses for BP. And then they had to tell the public: So, how are you going to make a profit, given that oil — you know, so much oil is essentially going to be worth less? And they said, “OK, guess we’ll figure out how to make a profit doing something else.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">U.S. companies don’t have to do that. So Exxon and Shell didn’t — Exxon and Chevron didn’t have to report those same type of losses, and they didn’t have to say how they’re going to make money. And what they said was, “Well, we’re going to keep making it off of oil and natural gas, because that’s what we do</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.” And what that tells us is that oil is increasingly worth less, and the companies that have to tell us that did. But what it doesn’t tell us is that what we should be doing moving forward is trusting the oil companies to change appropriately to address the problem at hand, because even in 10 years BP is still planning to have over 60% of its operations be from oil and gas. And BP has already started selling off oil and gas assets, but that doesn’t mean it’s keeping that oil in the ground. It just means that it has sold them to other companies, which are already producing them.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>So, if we want to live up to the obligations which the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has told us, that at least some 80% of fossil fuels need to stay in the ground, that’s going have to happen through government policy.</b> And it’s going to have to be government policy that is grounded in equity and justice, so those nations that can go first do and go the fastest, and those communities that are essentially experiencing the majority of the harms of oil extraction without enjoying the benefits also go first and are helped to be transitioned away, while they’re keeping fossil fuels in the ground, and that the world and nations support each other in this process through a national Green New Deal, through a global Green New Deal, through policies that make it clear that we are in this together as we make this difficult transition, but we will do it, and we will do it promptly.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The last thing I would say is —</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">AMY GOODMAN:</strong> Antonia, I wanted to ask you —</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ANTONIA JUHASZ:</strong> Yeah, yeah.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">AMY GOODMAN:</strong> — about the group of 145 organizations releasing this <a href="https://oilchangeusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Letter-to-VP-Biden-%E2%80%94-No-Fossil-Fuel-Representatives.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">letter</a> calling on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to ban fossil fuel interests from his campaign and administration, if he wins. The letter reads, “Nearly half of Americans now breathe polluted air, the vast majority of which comes from burning fossil fuels … To advance environmental justice, you must stand up to fossil fuel CEOs, stop the expansion of oil, gas and coal production, and rapidly transition us away from fossil fuels.” Yet during his speech in Pennsylvania Monday, Joe Biden said he will not ban fracking. This is what he said.</font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background: rgb(245, 245, 245); border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><strong style="font-style: normal; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">JOE BIDEN:</strong><i> </i>I am not banning fracking. Let me say that again: I am not banning fracking.</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">AMY GOODMAN:</strong> So, if you can respond this? Despite the fact, of course, the Trump administration, you couldn’t get an administration more pro-oil — he attacked Joe Biden recently, talking about him being against oil, gas, guns and God. Can you talk about Biden’s record, and as well as Kamala Harris, his running mate?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ANTONIA JUHASZ:</strong> Yeah, absolutely. <b>So, you know, here is a place where Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have put forth diametrically opposed pledges</b>. Kamala Harris pledged to end fracking in her campaign. Joe Biden has now said he won’t. In a play of wills between Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, I’m going to go with Kamala Harris, and I’m also going to go with the public, that, you know, essentially, with Joe Biden, is going to need to continue to push, just as the entire environmental and social justice movements have said that they will.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Biden did go further in this election, and did Kamala Harris, than any other set of candidates that have made it this far. Biden pledged to end fossil fuel subsidies for the industry. Biden and Kamala Harris both took No Fossil Fuel Money pledges, not to accept money from the industry in their campaigns. Harris also pledged no fossil fuel subsidies. Biden and Harris also both pledged no new leasing on public lands for oil and gas, and offshore for oil and gas. Those are all critically important fossil fuel policies, and they’re Keep It in the Ground policies. And then Kamala Harris went further. She pledged to pursue a global negotiation for the managed decline of fossil fuel production around the world. I can’t overemphasize what a shift that would be, how important that would be.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">And so, moving forward, during the campaign and after the campaign, a Biden administration is going to need to continue to hear loudly from the public on what it wants, not just on addressing the climate crisis, but addressing fossil fuels in order to succeed at addressing the climate crisis. And I think Kamala Harris is going to be the stronger ally in that to keep that pressure on Biden and on the Biden administration, and during the campaign, as groups are now.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">AMY GOODMAN:</strong> Very quickly — we only have a minute to go — I wanted to ask you two questions. One, the significance of the primary win of Senator Markey in Massachusetts? And, two, the issue of how this bailout should be rolling forward: What should be bailed out, and what should be allowed to die?</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">ANTONIA JUHASZ:</strong> The <b>Markey win is essentially a victory across the board, for the Green New Deal, for confronting the climate crisis, for progressive politics.</b> You know, Markey has been out front on so many of these issues. When I was writing on the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, his work was so key in exposing not just BP’s operations, but the federal government. He would consistently hold the Obama administration to account on its failures on the BP crisis. So his victory is tremendous in moving forward with the Green New Deal.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">And how the bailout money should be spent — first of all, just to make sure we’re clear on what’s moving forward right now, the Trump administration’s unemployment plan that he’s put into place is coming out of hurricane — federal hurricane recovery money. So, that shouldn’t be happening. What we should be doing is moving into a direction that’s actually going to support workers moving forward, that’s actually going to support our economy and actually support rebuilding. And that’s not doubling down on an industry that is failing. That’s looking forward to localized, small-scale building up of the green, renewable, sustainable, equitably owned and distributed energy and transportation solutions. And those policies have been proven time and time again by economists now who have looked back since 2008 on what’s worked for recovering after huge economic catastrophes, and green economy, green jobs trump fossil fuels by four to one.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">AMY GOODMAN:</strong> Antonia Juhasz, I want to thank you for being with us, oil and energy reporter, Bertha fellow in investigative journalism. Her recent <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2020-5-september-october/feature/end-oil-near" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">cover story</a> for <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Sierra</em> magazine, we will link to at democracynow.org, “The End of Oil Is Near,” and “Bailout: Billions of Dollars of Federal COVID-19 Relief Money Flow to the Oil Industry.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Next up, unions representing teachers and principals in New York City avert a strike as they reach a deal to delay the reopening of the largest public school system in the United States. You’ll find out what it is. Stay with us.</font></p><font face="Times New Roman" /><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman">an 820</font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Here is the last question: what does the location of the FBI headquarters have to do with the $1 trillion coronavirus relief bill. The answer to that is not obvious so I will spare my readers’ puzzlement by telling them: everything and nothing.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The J. Edgar Hoover Building FBI headquarters is in a decrepit state. Long before Trump moved to Washington, it was accepted that a new headquarters was required, and considerable effort had gone into selecting possible new locations for the headquarters. By June 2017, federal officials had lit upon three “finalist” locations: one in Virginia and two in Maryland. Not only had the three finalists been selected, but Congress had appropriated $913 million for the project that, when completed, was expected to cost more than $3 billion.</font></p><div class="clearfix" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; clear: both; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The proposed new building was to accommodate the FBI personnel presently working in the capitol, would offer greatly increased security, and would get the agency out a building that was outdated and dilapidated. Enter Trump. He was reportedly “dead opposed” to moving the FBI headquarters out of downtown D.C. As a result, plans to relocate the FBI to the suburbs were abandoned. Trump decided the J. Edgar Hoover building should be torn down and a much smaller one erected in its place. The new building would be 2.6 million square feet, would cost $3.3 billion and would not be able to accommodate all the employees in the present structure. As a result, 2,300 employees would be given the opportunity to relocate to Alabama, Idaho and West Virginia if they wanted to continue working for the FBI. In addition, by keeping the headquarters in its present location, expenses would be double. The FBI would have to bear the expense of moving into a temporary location while the new building was being built, and when completed, bear the expense of moving back into the new quarters.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">When the decision to keep the FBI in its present location was announced in mid-2017, many observers, including some members of Congress were puzzled. Upon sober analysis, however, the reasons became clear even though masked in the obfuscatory language favored by Trump.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">In a press briefing on July 23, 2020, Trump was asked whether the issue of the FBI building was holding up the approval of the economic aid package that the senate Republicans appeared to be close to finalizing. In response he said there is not a better location for the FBI than its present site. He said it would be an incredible building with a running track on the roof because “FBI people like to work out a lot.” Others came up with another explanation for why Trump wants to keep the FBI in its present location.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The present location is one block away from Trump International Hotel, a continuing source of income for Trump. If an FBI building remains in that location, Trump is assured that no competing hotel will be built there. From the Trump point of view including a provision in the aid package to protect his income was as important as providing aid to the millions of people whose livelihoods have been demolished by the coronavirus.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">When the proposed Republican coronavirus package was unveiled on July 27, 2020, it was observed by some that it included $1.75 billion for “the design and construction of a Washington, DC headquarters facility for the Federal Bureau of Investigation.” Since it was such a small sum it is no surprise that in response to a question, Mitch McConnell appeared to be unaware that funding for the FBI building was in the bill. When an aide assured him it was, Mr. McConnell responded to another questioner who asked why funding for the FBI building was part of the bill, saying the Trump administration would have to “answer the question of why they insisted on that provision” since he, as Majority Leader, is apparently not required to know why provisions in legislation being sponsored by his party are included. He has learned.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">In an interview with Judy Woodruff on the PBS News Hour two days later, Mr. McConnell said that funding for the FBI headquarters of which he had been unaware two days earlier, was in fact one of three provisions he would like to see deleted from the final bill because, as he astutely observed, it has nothing to do with the purpose of the proposed relief package. Perhaps he’ll suggest to Trump that it be removed. Don’t count on it; and don’t expect its removal.</font></p><p style=""><font face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" /></font></font></font></font></font><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>GOP under fire for slipping $30 billion Pentagon gift into coronavirus relief bill</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/gop-under-fire-for-slipping-30-billion-pentagon-gift-into-relief-bill/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/08/gop-under-fire-for-slipping-30-billion-pentagon-gift-into-relief-bill/</a></div><div>
</div><div>Written by Common Dreams August 1, 2020</div><div>
</div><div>In a floor speech late Monday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell described the GOP’s newly released coronavirus stimulus package as a “carefully tailored” plan to provide financial relief to desperate Americans.</div><div>
</div><div><b>But a look at the legislative text (pdf) released by Senate Republicans shows the HEALS Act is replete with massive gifts to the Pentagon and defense contractors that would do nothing to aid the unemployed, provide nutrition assistance to hungry children, prevent an avalanche of evictions, or stop the spread of coronavirus.</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>“Last time I checked F-35s don’t help families pay their bills,” </b>Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) tweeted in response to the GOP’s proposal of $686 million in spending on new fighter jets.</div><div>
</div><div>The legislation also includes hundreds of millions of dollars in funding for <b>surveillance planes, Apache helicopters, and armored vehicles.</b></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>The HEALS Act proposes a total of $29.4 billion in new military spending just a week after the House and Senate approved a $740.5 billion Pentagon budget for fiscal year 2021.</div><div>
</div><div>Meanwhile, as Common Dreams reported earlier Tuesday, <b>the Republican package includes no money for state and local governments, election assistance, or the U.S. Postal Service. The legislation would also slash the weekly federal unemployment insurance boost from $600 to $200.</b></div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>Roll Call’s John Donnelly reported Monday that “Senate Republicans have laced their roughly $1 trillion coronavirus relief package with at least <b>$7 billion for weapons, most of which are built by leading contractors that contribute heavily to congressional campaigns.”</b></div><div>
</div><div>According to Donnelly:</div><div>
</div><div>The draft appropriations portion, made public Monday evening, includes money for fighter jets, helicopters, radars, ships, and armored vehicles that the measure’s authors have deemed “emergency” spending that is not capped by the budget control law…</div><div>
</div><div><b>The top two defense contractors, Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co., would do especially well under the measure.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The list of weapons is topped by fully $1 billion for an unstated number of Boeing P-8 Poseidon maritime surveillance jets. Also on the list is $283 million for Boeing Apache helicopters for the Army.</span></div><div>
</div><div>Boeing’s Ground-Based Midcourse Defense anti-missile system, which is aimed at intercepting incoming ballistic missiles from sites in Alaska and California, would receive $200 million, and $243 million more would go to a missile defense radar program.</div><div>
</div><div>“People are dying, or worried about keeping a roof over their families’ heads, or cutting hours because their kids’ schools are closed,” said Anthony Weir, a lobbyist on nuclear disarmament and Pentagon spending at the<b> Friends</b> Committee on National Legislation. “And this is the time to jam some military procurement into this year that you didn’t get last year?”</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/government-watchdog-finds-strong-indicators-of-widespread-fraud-in-crucial-economic-recovery-program/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/government-watchdog-finds-strong-indicators-of-widespread-fraud-in-crucial-economic-recovery-program/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">fla 318K lambo ppp</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/not-shocking-gops-covid-19-plan-puts-corporate-greed-before-human-need/</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Not shocking: GOP’s COVID-19 plan puts corporate greed before human need</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Thom Hartmann / Common Dreams July 29, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">It should be called the HEELS Act, not the HEALS Act.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trump-gets-a-lot-of-goodies-in-mcconnells-covid-19-relief-bill-and-the-american-people-get-shafted/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trump-gets-a-lot-of-goodies-in-mcconnells-covid-19-relief-bill-and-the-american-people-get-shafted/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">kos</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">W<span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb">hile Republican senators were introducing their respective pieces of the new “coronavirus relief” bill<b> Mitch McConnell has cooked up, called the HEALS Act </b>(Health, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools), Treasury Secretary Steven <b>Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows </b>were </span><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/07/27/senate-stimulus-coronavirus/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_bailouthill-1005am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans" target="blank" style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" transition="transition" color="color" s="s" ease="ease" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer">meeting</a><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"> with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer “to begin formal negotiations,” which really shows where the power to pass the new bill lies. Because what McConnell offered up is beyond ridiculous and doesn’t even have the support of probably half of his conference.</span></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It has the support of absolutely no Democrats. Sen. Bernie Sanders <a href="https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1287947590559031296" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">summed up</a> just how dead on arrival it is in a tweet detailing what’s in it: $2 billion for F-35s, $1.75 billion for an FBI building, $1 billion for surveillance planes, $375 million for armored vehicles, $360 million for missile defense, $283 million for Apache helicopters, and $0 for millions facing eviction. That sounds like a whole bunch of sweeteners McConnell had to throw in to get Trump appeased for not getting his payroll tax cut.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> The stuff in it that’s actually related to the COVID-19 crisis is really, really inadequate. It does one good, modest thing—the $1,200 direct payment is back, and here’s where they did the one good thing, children over age 17 will now be eligible for the $500 dependent payment. That’s pretty much the whole of the good.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>In addition to the larding up of a public health bill with armaments and Trump bribes, it excludes increases in food assistance, rental assistance, student loan help, pretty much anything that helps</b>. It does include a cut to the weekly unemployment insurance (UI) boost from $600 to $200 temporarily while states set up a system to pay people 70% of their previous income, which the Republicans want them to do in the next two months. State unemployment officials have <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/state-unemployment-officials-unite-against-wage-replacement-plan" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">united in opposition</a> to that idea as completely unworkable. How bad is it? The Republican labor commissioner in Georgia, Mark Butler, calls it “the dumbest idea ever.” He says “We’re not the IRS. We don’t have your taxes. We don’t know what you made last year. Our stuff is based on you getting laid off by a particular employer and them reporting to us about what the wages are.” So there’s that.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">That’s the sum total of how they plan to help people. They also include at least $100 billion more for the problematic Paycheck Protection Program. (Disclosure: <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/5/21/1946815/-Kos-Media-receives-Paycheck-Protection-Program-loan" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Kos Media received a Paycheck Protection Program loan</a>.) There is no new money for state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, just some tweaking of the restrictions on the previous $150 billion that was provided in the CARES Act so states have more flexibility. The only new money directed to states is for schools, a large portion of it restricted to go only to schools that physically reopen. It also has McConnell’s obsession, five-years of liability protection for businesses, healthcare providers, and others who might expose people to coronavirus infection.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The stuff, beyond military toys to make Trump happy, include an increase in business tax deductions for meals and entertainment. Presumably at Trump properties. Because so many people are now thinking, “you know, if I could just deduct the full cost of a meal it would be worth going to a restaurant and exposing myself to a potentially fatal virus.” That, it turns out, is why there’s also that new FBI building money included this bill. For years, Trump has been <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/27/fbi-building-coronavirus-stimulus-congress/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">obsessing</a> over a new headquarters to be built in downtown D.C. The problem isn’t the new building, everyone agrees the crumbling J. Edgar Hoover Building needs replacing. The pre-Trump plan was a suburban campus, which was nixed by Trump. That decision is still being investigated by the Justice Department’s inspector general because what seems to be behind Trump’s move is the fear that the feds selling off the spot where the current building is to a developer that would build a hotel on the site, one block from Trump’s D.C. hotel. Because everything is always going to be about the Trump grift.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">This is a bad bill. It is an unacceptable bill for Democrats, which is one point of agreement with half of McConnell’s Republicans. They’re just coming from different angles on how bad it is. Democrats are rejecting it because it does basically nothing to help people and Republicans because it spends some money on people. “There is significant resistance to yet another trillion dollars,” <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/07/27/senate-stimulus-coronavirus/?hpid=hp_hp-banner-main_bailouthill-1005am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">said</a> Sen. Ted Cruz “The answer to these challenges will not simply be shoveling cash out of Washington; the answer to these challenges will be getting people back to work.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Democrats are starting from their HEROES Act,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> which includes much higher UI benefits’ hundreds of billions in state and local aid; hazard pay for essential workers; billions for the Postal Service; a 15% boost to food stamps; and $100 billion for renters as well as a moratorium on all evictions for the remainder of this year. For a start. This Republican bill, which has taken McConnell two and a half months to cobble together, after critical assistance deadlines have already passed, has been a phenomenal waste of time. Now the real work begins</span></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=
</font><div><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/gop-coronavirus-relief-package-to-include-romney-bill-that-would-fast-track-social-security-and-medicare-cuts/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-weight: normal;">GOP coronavirus relief package to include Romney bill that would ‘fast-track Social Security and Medicare cuts’</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/gop-coronavirus-relief-package-to-include-romney-bill-that-would-fast-track-social-security-and-medicare-cuts/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-weight: normal;">an 720</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/gop-coronavirus-relief-package-to-include-romney-bill-that-would-fast-track-social-security-and-medicare-cuts/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams/" title="Posts by Common Dreams" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: right; font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" box-sizing="box-sizing" border-box="border-box" outline="outline" none="none" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding" text-decoration-line="text-decoration-line" transition="transition" color="color" s="s" ease="ease" cursor="cursor" pointer="pointer" line-height="line-height" display="display" inline="inline" important="important"><font face="Times New Roman">Common Dream<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">s</span></font></a></h3></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=
</font><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/heres-how-big-businesses-got-government-loans-meant-for-small-businesses-propublica/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/heres-how-big-businesses-got-government-loans-meant-for-small-businesses-propublica/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman"> Over 5,600 fossil fuel companies have taken at least $3bn in US Covid-19 aid</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">guk 720</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx guk</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">ore than 5,600 companies in the fossil fuel industry have taken a minimum of $3bn in coronavirus aid from the US federal government, according to an analysis by Documented and the Guardian of newly released data.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The businesses include oil and gas drillers and coal mine operators, as well as refiners, pipeline companies and firms that provide services to the industry.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">America's coalminers call for urgent help amid Covid-19 and industry decline</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Read more</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The Small Business Administration (SBA) on Monday released the data under pressure for further transparency, including from journalism outlets that had sued demanding the public records.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The $3bn figure is probably far less than the companies actually received. The SBA did not disclose the specific amounts of loans and instead listed ranges. On the high end, fossil fuel companies could have received up to $6.7bn. At least 475 fossil fuel companies received at least $2m, according to the data the SBA released that it collected from banks.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">This analysis only includes loans over $150,000, because the SBA did not disclose which companies received smaller loans.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Fossil fuel companies are not restricted from taking the forgivable Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, designed to be used to keep paying employees and to cover recurring bills during the pandemic. But environmental advocates say that investing billions in an industry that is polluting the planet and causing the climate crisis is short-sighted and a bad use of public money.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“Federal aid should be going to help small businesses and frontline workers struggling as the result of the pandemic, not the corporate polluters whose struggles are a result of longstanding failing business practices,” said Melinda Pierce, Sierra Club legislative director.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The Guardian attempted to contact all of the companies named in this story for comment and did not receive responses by deadline.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Several of the companies receiving loans of at least $5m reported having 500 employees, which is the upper end of what the government considers to be a small business. One was the Navajo Transitional Energy Company, which owns four mines including the one on Navajo nation territory that supplies coal to the large Four Corners coal plant. The plant is run by Arizona Public Service Co, which will close it in 2031 when its coal contract expires.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The eastern Ohio coal company CCU Coal and Construction, which reported having 148 employees, also took at least $5m. Last year, the company announced plans to cut half of its staff, or 205 jobs, because American Electric Power is closing a plant it provides coal to in Conesville.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The Sunflower Electric Power Corporation, which is owned by customers and not investors, also got at least $5m. It announced earlier this year that it would pull the plug on a long-delayed coal-power project in Kansas.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The list of recipients getting at least $5m also included oil drillers. Four were listed as top 10 drilling rig operators in Texas late last year: Independence Contract Drilling, Latshaw Drilling Company, NorAm Drilling Company and Scandrill.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Jesse Coleman, a researcher for Documented, said: “We should not be wasting taxpayer dollars on an industry that’s in a tailspin of its own making, especially when it seems intent on bringing the whole planet down with it.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">A separate review by the watchdog Accountable.US and the Guardian found that millions of dollars in coronavirus aid has also gone to companies with histories of significant environmental violations.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Pacific Ethanol, a California company that makes a biofuel that is blended into gasoline, took $9.9m. Multiple Pacific Ethanol facilities have been cited for breaking water and air pollution laws year after year, racking up $2.6m in environmental fines over the last five years, according to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) database.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">In 2017, the Sierra Club sued the company, arguing its bioethanol plant in Pekin, Illinois, had “brazenly and consistently violated its water-pollution permit for years”, releasing hot and polluted wastewater into the Illinois River.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Rob Weinstock, an environment lawyer who worked on the Illinois case against Pacific Ethanol, said the company repeatedly failed to correct problems with its Pekin plant and stalled regulators by requesting permission to conduct a study on the effects of releasing hotter water into the river and then delaying that study.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Paul Koehler, Pacific Ethanol’s spokesman, contested the EPA data showing the company has been fined $2.6m, saying it has been fined less than half that amount and that many of the penalties were for problems it self-reported.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">He said the company produces low-carbon renewable fuel and aims to lower emissions. Many environmental advocates argue, however, that growing corn to produce ethanol to blend into gasoline damages the environment and still results in air pollution.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Koehler said most of the company’s violations over the last five years were in California and were from equipment failures that Pacific Ethanol self-reported while trying to fix.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">A second company, Perma-Fix Environmental Services, a waste management company, took a $5.7m loan. It was fined $390,000 in the last five years, according to the EPA database. Perma-Fix in May saw revenues increase 112% to $24.9m, compared to the same period last year. That equaled about $1.2m for stockholders.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">A third company, the chemical manufacturer LSB Industries, received $10m. LSB Industries incurred $236,000 in federal environmental fines since 2015, according to EPA. In 2014, the company and its subsidiaries paid $725,000 in penalties to settle alleged federal and state air quality violations at 10 nitric acid plants in four states, Oklahoma, Alabama, Arkansas and Texas.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">In total, at least nine companies that were fined for environmental violations in the last five years have been awarded $35m. Those numbers are based on filings from publicly-traded companies in regulatory filings. The full total is probably far higher.</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"> =</font><div><font face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/here-are-some-of-trumps-friends-and-family-who-were-cleared-for-millions-in-small-business-bailout-fund">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/here-are-some-of-trumps-friends-and-family-who-were-cleared-for-millions-in-small-business-bailout-fund</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">B<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Businesses tied to President Donald Trump’s family and associates stand to receive as much as $21 million in government loans designed to shore up payroll expenses for companies struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to federal data released Monday.</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">A hydroponic lettuce farm backed by Trump’s eldest son, Donald Jr., applied for at least $150,000 in Small Business Administration funding. Albert Hazzouri, a dentist frequently spotted at Mar-a-Lago, asked for a similar amount. A hospital run by Maria Ryan, a close associate of Trump lawyer and former mayor Rudy Giuliani, requested more than $5 million. Several companies connected to the president’s son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner, could get upward of $6 million.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">There’s no ban on businesses connected to Trump’s orbit receiving money. Democrats added a provision to the CARES Act excluding government officials and their family members from receiving some bailout funds, but not those from the PPP.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The firms sought funding under the Paycheck Protection Program, one of the Trump administration’s sweeping pandemic relief efforts. Created in late March by the CARES Act, it allowed small businesses — generally, those with fewer than 500 employees — to apply for loans of up to $10 million. The loans can be forgiven if used to cover payroll, rent, mortgage interest or utilities.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The program paid out $521 billion to almost 4.9 million companies in an effort to provide relief for small businesses and their workers amid the sudden economic shock brought on by the pandemic. As applications slowed after the initial rush, $132 billion remained unspent, and Congress voted to extend the program.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">After resisting releasing the names, the government bowed to pressure from critics and watchdog groups. On Monday, the administration disclosed only those entities that were approved by banks for loans over $150,000. A consortium of news organizations, including ProPublica, has <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/propublica-joins-news-organizations-in-suing-for-small-business-program-loan-info" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">sued</a> the administration under the Freedom of Information Act to release the full list of recipients and loan details.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The program has been criticized for including <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/which-companies-are-returning-their-ppp-loan-here-s-list-n1194566" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">some loan recipients</a>, particularly large, publicly traded companies, and for favoring wealthier businesses that had existing relationships with banks. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/22/business/sba-loans-ppp-coronavirus.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">In some cases</a> customers could essentially skip the line. Overall, however, many economists praise the PPP for having gotten billions to companies relatively quickly.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The New York Observer, the news website that Kushner ran before entering the White House and is still owned by <a href="https://www.observercap.com/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">his brother-in-law’s investment firm</a>, was approved for between $350,000 and $1 million, data shows. A company called Princeton Forrestal LLC that is at least 40 percent owned by Kushner family members, according to a 2018 <a href="https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1532799/000153949718001937/n1449_premktts-x2.htm" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">securities filing</a>, was approved for $1 million to $2 million. Esplanade Livingston LLC, whose address is the same as that of the Kushner Companies real estate development business, was approved for $350,000 to $1 million. The company didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. The loans to Kushner-related companies were <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/trumps-small-biz-rescue-bailed-out-kushners-family-obamas-aides-and-other-political-elite" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">first reported by The Daily Beast</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">In addition, up to $2 million was approved for the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy, a nonprofit religious school in Livingston, N.J., that’s named for Jared Kushner’s grandfather and supported by the family.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">....</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trump-connected-lobbyists-have-raked-in-10-billion-in-covid-19-aid-for-corporate-clients/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trump-connected-lobbyists-have-raked-in-10-billion-in-covid-19-aid-for-corporate-clients/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">i<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">n yet another </span><a href="https://apnews.com/2edf8670a491a702ecfb7312f507f83a" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">sign</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> that the “swamp is alive and well in Washington, D.C.” despite President Donald Trump’s repeated promises to drain it, consumer advocacy group Public Citizen </span><a href="https://www.citizen.org/article/covid-lobbying-palooza/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">released a new report</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Monday morning identifying <b>at least 40 Trump-connected lobbyists who have raked in over $10 billion in federal Covid-19 relief for their corporate clients since the pandemic began.</b></span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The dozens of lobbyists with ties to Trump through his campaigns, his administration, and/or his transition team “collectively have represented at least 150 clients on Covid matters,” Public Citizen notes in its new report titled “<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.citizen.org/wp-content/uploads/Covid-Lobbying-Palooza.pdf" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">COVID Lobbying Palooza</a></em></strong>” (pdf). Those clients include such corporate behemoths as Pfizer, Comcast, McDonald’s, MasterCard, and American Airlines.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“The crisis offered an especially lucrative opportunity for those lobbyists who enjoy close ties to President Donald Trump and his administration—and they seized it,” reads the report, which briefly profiles all 40 of the lobbiysts and details some of their activities. “They have reported lobbying to obtain special industry carveouts for aid, government approval of their clients’ products and, most commonly, Covid-related aid across a myriad of programs.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Public Citizen found that 27 clients of Trump-connected lobbyists have secured $10.5 billion in taxpayer coronavirus aid—a sum that is likely an underestimate because it does not include data from the $650 billion Paycheck Protection Program, which the White House has <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/06/11/speaking-looting-trump-admin-refuses-disclose-corporate-recipients-500-billion" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">worked to keep under wraps</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>the $10.5 billion total, according to Public Citizen “consists of $6.3 billion in grants, $4.2 billion in loans, and $67 million worth of support in the form of corporate bond purchases by the Federal Reserve.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Five of the lobbyists identified by Public Citizen—including former Transportation Department official Geoffrey Burr and former Treasury adviser Jordan Stoick—”may have violated a Trump executive order that restricts lobbying activities by former officials,” the group said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“In many cases, the forms indicate that the former officials’ agencies were directly lobbied,” the report reads.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Craig Holman, a registered lobbyist for Public Citizen and a campaign finance expert, <a href="https://apnews.com/2edf8670a491a702ecfb7312f507f83a" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">told</a> the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Associated Press</em> that the group is planning to file ethics complaints with the White House over the apparent violations.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“There does not appear to be anyone who is enforcing the executive order,” said Holman. The report says an investigation into the activity is warranted.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Arguing that sweeping reforms will be necessary to prevent such profiteering in the future, Public Citizen said “few scenarios would better embody most people’s image of the Washington ‘swamp’ than dozens of hired-gun lobbyists cashing in on their government connections during a public health emergency.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“In the short term, the government, of course, should do everything it possibly can to offer the public an unobstructed window into the details of where the trillions in public dollars are going,” the group said. “In the long term, future administrations and the Congress should embrace systemic reforms to sever the conflicts of interest that incentivize government officials to favor the wealthy and well-connected over the constituents whom they are hired to serve.”</font></p><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/rep-katie-porter-demands-resignation-of-trump-small-business-chief-for-enabling-abuse-of-covid-19-relief-funds/" rel="bookmark" title="Rep. Katie Porter demands resignation of Trump small business chief for enabling ‘abuse’ of COVID-19 relief funds" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="font-weight: normal;">Katie Porter demands resignation of Trump small business chief for enabling ‘abuse’ of COVID-19 relief funds</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/rep-katie-porter-demands-resignation-of-trump-small-business-chief-for-enabling-abuse-of-covid-19-relief-funds/" rel="bookmark" title="Rep. Katie Porter demands resignation of Trump small business chief for enabling ‘abuse’ of COVID-19 relief funds" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4; display: block;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/rep-katie-porter-demands-resignation-of-trump-small-business-chief-for-enabling-abuse-of-covid-19-relief-funds/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/i-cant-speak-negatively-about-the-president-trumps-watchdog-purge-is-on-the-mind-of-the-official-charged-with-stimulus-oversight/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/i-cant-speak-negatively-about-the-president-trumps-watchdog-purge-is-on-the-mind-of-the-official-charged-with-stimulus-oversight/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/the-cares-act-sent-you-a-1200-check-but-it-gave-millionaires-and-billionaires-so-much-more" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/the-cares-act-sent-you-a-1200-check-but-it-gave-millionaires-and-billionaires-so-much-more</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. </font></span></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Do you want to see how legislation that was supposed to be a bailout for our economy ended up committing almost as much taxpayer money to help a relative handful of the non-needy as it spent to help tens of millions of people in need? Then let’s step back and revisit parts of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and look at some of the numbers involved.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The best-known feature of the CARES Act, as it’s known, is the cash grant of up to $1,200 per adult and $500 per child for households whose income was less than $99,000 for single taxpayers and $198,000 for couples. These grants are nontaxable, which makes them even more valuable. Some 159 million stimulus payments have gone out, according to the IRS.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The income limits suggested that the plan benefits the people most in need, those most likely to spend their stimulus payments and thus help the economy. The rhetoric conveyed the same: “<a href="https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/cares/assistance-for-american-workers-and-families" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The CARES Act Provides Assistance to Workers And Their Families</a>” is how the Treasury’s website puts it. There were no grants to more-fortunate people, who for the most part aren’t in financial distress and are less likely than the less-fortunate to spend any money that Uncle Sam sent them.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">but when I began looking at details of the legislation, I realized that several of its provisions quietly provided benefits that were worth much more than $1,200 to some upper-middle-class people who didn’t qualify for stimulus payments. Some other provisions provided vastly bigger benefits to the rich, to corporations and to a relative handful of ultra-rich folks.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">So let me show you five provisions of the legislation that benefited the upper middle class (including yours truly); the families of Donald Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner; high-income people who make large charitable donations; and Boeing and other corporations that are showing losses; as well as indirectly benefited people who have substantial investments in U.S. stocks.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">These five provisions that help the well-heeled will cost the Treasury — which is to say, U.S. taxpayers — an estimated $257.95 billion for the 2020 calendar year. That’s nearly as much as the estimated $292.37 billion price tag for the stimulus grants to regular folks. The numbers are from Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation, the official scorekeeper of the financial impact that legislation has on the Treasury. (I used those figures to calculate the spending for the 2020 calendar year rather than for 10 federal fiscal years because I’m interested in today’s impact, not the projected long-term impact.)</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">I’m writing this now, more than two months after the CARES Act took effect, as a cautionary tale. That’s because with massive unemployment upon us and the fall elections drawing near, there’s a temptation for Congress and Trump to produce legislation that will help needy people a bit but help the non-needy a lot more by doing things like reducing capital gains taxes.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Now, let me take you through the provisions, only one of which — the break for the Trumps, the Kushners and their ilk — has attracted <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/04/30/848321204/how-the-cares-act-became-a-tax-break-bonanza-for-the-rich-explained" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">meaningful public attention</a>.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman">Eliminating Required Distributions From Retirement Accounts: $11.72 billion</font></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">People ages 72 and up who have IRAs or 401(k)s or other “defined contribution” retirement accounts must take federally taxable required minimum distributions from them every year. (Some states also tax these distributions.) People who inherit such accounts are also required to take annual distributions, regardless of their age.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The required distribution amount is based on year-end age and account balances. For example, if you were 75 at year-end — as I was — your RMD for this year is 4.37% of your year-end 2019 retirement account balances. If you were 76, it’s 4.55%.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">But this year, thanks to the CARES Act, I don’t have to take any retirement distributions at all.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Not having to take distributions matters a lot to some people. For instance, if I took my full RMD this year, which I don’t plan to do, it would be one of my larger income sources. And I would have to pay federal and state income tax on it, regardless of whether I spent the money or saved it.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">I’d like to tell you how many people the JCT expects to benefit from this year’s RMD waiver; how much their distributions would have totaled and what the tax rate on them would have been; and how many people the JCT expects to take distributions this year even though they’re not required to take them. Alas, the JCT doesn’t disclose this information and declined to share it with me.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">But even though I don’t have specific numbers, it’s clear that most of the benefit from this year’s RMD waiver goes to well-off people. Why? Because people who need retirement account money to live on are going to take distributions, and people who don’t need the money are unlikely to take distributions.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The reason for the no-RMD provision is that the stock market was sinking rapidly in March, when the CARES Act was being discussed. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, for example, fell by 30.8% from the end of 2019 through its low for 2020 (at least so far) on March 23, a few days before Trump signed the CARES Act legislation. Congress didn’t want to penalize retirees by forcing them to sell stock during a market crash.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">So if someone with a 4.37% required distribution had money in an S&P 500 index fund, our investor would have had to withdraw 6.32% of the fund’s balance (4.37 divided by 69.2) rather than 4.37% of it if the investor took the distribution on March 23. That would have hurt our investor’s future financial security.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">If the market fell by 50% through year-end, which in the scary days of March seemed to be a distinct possibility and could still happen, our theoretical investor would have to cash out 8.74% of the account if RMDs were still required.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">There were other ways to deal with this problem, such as letting people take a pass on their first $15,000 of RMDs, rather than giving a big break to the likes of me and a far bigger break to people with far larger retirement accounts than mine. But Congress and Trump didn’t do that.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman">Charitable Deductions: $4.83 billion</font></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Normally, people who itemize deductions on their federal tax return can deduct no more than 60% of their adjusted gross income for charitable contributions. But for this year, the limit is 100% of AGI.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The Tax Policy Center, whose research helped inform this article, estimates that about two-thirds of the people who donated more than 60% of their AGI in past years had incomes of less than $100,000. But although such people accounted for the bulk of those making such large contributions relative to their income, the TPC says, “Most of the value of the deduction goes to just a small number of the very wealthy.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The theory behind raising the limit this year is that it will encourage people to make larger donations than they otherwise would. But I can’t imagine how this provision — like the provision allowing people who take the standard deduction to subtract $300 from their taxable income for charitable contributions — is going to significantly increase donations to charities trying to help people cope with COVID-19.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The $4.83 billion JCT number for this provision’s cost to the Treasury includes tax savings for both individuals and corporations.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman">Pass-Through Entities: $140.61 billion</font></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Now, we come to the huge item that benefits the likes of Trump and Kushner, their families, other wealthy real estate types, hedge fund investors and all sorts of ultra-high-income people, who derive large amounts of money from partnerships, LLCs and other so-called pass-through entities.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">As you’ll see in a bit, this big-time break provides a big-time benefit to a relative handful of people.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Now that it’s a fait accompli, this provision is belatedly getting a lot of media attention. So I’ll spare you most of the details about how it allows the ultra-wealthy to use paper losses to offset income that was taxed in previous years, when tax rates were higher than they are now, and get refunds based on those old, higher rates.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Suffice it to say that the JCT estimates that about 82% of these benefits — let’s call it $115 billion — will go to about 43,000 taxpayers with $1 million or more in annual income. That’s an average of about $2.68 million each.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The new proposed stimulus package passed by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives — the HEROES (for Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions) Act — would repeal this provision. However, its prospects for passage in the Senate, where Majority Leader <a href="https://projects.propublica.org/represent/members/M000355-mitch-mcconnell" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.</a>, has called the HEROES Act a “<a href="https://abc7chicago.com/fifth-coronavirus-bill-next-in-the-us-update/6182563/" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">totally unserious effort</a>,” seem remote. He and other Senate Republicans insisted on making the break for pass-through entities part of the CARES legislation. It’s hard to imagine them allowing any new bailout legislation to reverse that benefit. I’m sure Democrats realized this but wanted to go on record as opposing the pass-through break.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The HEROES Act would also repeal the $10,000 limit on deductions for state and local income and real estate taxes, which Republicans included in the 2017 tax cut legislation to <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-trillion-dollar-hit-to-homeowners" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">reduce the cost to the Treasury of the big cuts</a> they gave to corporations and ultra-high-income people. (<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/trumps-trillion-dollar-hit-to-homeowners" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Not coincidentally, the cap hurt people in high-income, high-tax blue states</a>.) It’s hard to imagine this provision becoming law, either.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Now, let’s look at two corporate tax breaks inserted in the CARES Act. One lets corporations increase their interest deductions; the second lets them use tax losses from 2018, 2019 and this year to get immediate, substantial refunds rather than having to wait until they show future profits that offset those losses.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The people who benefit most from these corporate tax breaks, of course, are the corporations’ owners. (Workers, in theory, benefit to some extent, as well.)</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">By increasing companies’ cash flows and reported earnings, these breaks help the share prices of corporations whose stock is publicly traded and help increase the value of privately held corporations.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Stock ownership by individuals is concentrated among higher-income people.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman">Corporate Interest Deductions: $12.09 billion</font></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">One of the reforms of the 2017 tax act was reducing the amount of interest that corporations could deduct on their federal tax returns. The idea was to reduce the attractiveness of debt, which is subsidized by taxpayers and carries big risks to corporate owners as well as employees. (For examples, see the recent <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/07/business/neiman-marcus-bankruptcy.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">bankruptcies of Neiman Marcus</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/14/business/coronavirus-retail-bankruptcies-private-equity.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">J. Crew</a>, which were burdened with debt, part of it incurred to pay fees and distributions to the buyout firms that had taken them over.)</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">The CARES Act undid part of the 2017 act by increasing the deductible level to 50% of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization from the previous 30%.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Like some of the other provisions that we’ve looked at, this doesn’t involve a lot of money relative to the numbers that we’re dealing with. But it’s symbolic. And the people benefiting the most from it because they have major investments in stocks aren’t likely to be worrying about how to pay for food or avoid losing their homes.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font face="Times New Roman">Corporate Loss Treatment: $88.70 billion</font></h3><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">This does the same kind of thing for corporations that the pass-through provision we discussed earlier does for LLCs and partnerships and such. But it hasn’t attracted anything like the same attention that the pass-through giveaway has gotten because it doesn’t involve names like Trump and Kushner.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Until now, corporations that had losses last year and this year could carry them forward to offset taxes for future years, but they couldn’t apply them to get refunds of taxes paid in previous years.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Corporations can now apply losses from this year, last year and 2018 to income from the previous five years. That’s going to be a big deal for companies — can you say Boeing? — that are likely to show losses.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">What’s more, these companies can get refunds of up to 35% of the losses they carry back to 2017 and earlier years, even though the corporate tax rate is now only 21%. The rationale is that because the corporate tax rate was 35% before 2018, companies should be able to get refunds today based on what they paid then, not on what they’d be paying now.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">So this pays off on multiple levels: The beneficiaries not only benefit today from current and recent losses rather than having to wait until they have profits in the future, but they get a much bigger bang for the buck.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">Our country is suffering through major, major problems. We’ve got more than 100,000 people dead from COVID-19, unemployment levels not seen since the Great Depression, and protests and civil unrest in cities and towns across the country. We’re appropriately adding trillions of dollars to our national debt to try to forestall an economic meltdown. Let’s just hope that further federal aid goes to those who really need it. And doesn’t go to those who don’t.</font></p><div style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Filed under:</font></strong></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><a href="https://www.propublica.org/topics/trump-administration" target="_blank" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump Administration</font></a></li></ul></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 style="margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></h1><div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/jim-cramer-coronavirus-pandemic-triggered-one-of-the-greatest-wealth-transfers-in-history/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/jim-cramer-coronavirus-pandemic-triggered-one-of-the-greatest-wealth-transfers-in-history/</font></a></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">an 620</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style="" /><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">Jim Cramer: Coronavirus pandemic triggered ‘one of the greatest wealth transfers in history’</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="">
</div><div style="">Written by Andrea Germanos / Common Dreams June 5, 2020</div><div style="">
</div><div style=""><b>CNBC‘s Jim Cramer said Thursday that that coronavirus pandemic has triggered “one of the greatest wealth transfers in history.”</b></div><div style=""><b>....</b></div><div style=""><b>
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