A new report released by the Congressional Oversight Commission shows that the Trump administration has only disbursed $37.5 billion of the $500 billion fund reserved in the CARES Act for “emergency lending to businesses and state and local governments.”
According to ABC News on Tuesday, “The $37.5 billion was put toward purchasing corporate debt, which will largely benefit big companies.”
Not a single dime of the money has been put toward the Main Street Lending Program that’s meant to help struggling midsize businesses, the report found.
More via ABC News:
The Treasury Department has so far disbursed only $37.5 billion of the $500 billion carved out in the CARES Act to be used for emergency lending to businesses and state and local governments, according to the report from the Congressional Oversight Commission.
Of the $500 billion total, $29 billion is available for airlines and $17 billion is available for businesses “critical to maintaining national security,” according to the report. No loans have been doled out from that reserved pot of money, nor has any public documentation been released on who the money is going to, the report said.
One of the most anticipated programs the $500 billion will support is the Main Street Lending Program, which will provide loans out to midsize businesses. No money has been disbursed through that program either, the report said.
The tax scam all over again?
The American people have seen this movie before: Republicans promise to provide relief to the middle class, only to see the money flow directly to the richest individuals and corporations in the country.
When Donald Trump and GOP loyalists in Congress rammed through their tax scam in 2017, they promised the benefits would go to American workers. Instead, the money largely benefited shareholders through hundreds of billions in stock buybacks.
In this case, a deadly pandemic that has been mismanaged by an incompetent president has crashed the economy and caused millions of people to lose their jobs. Small businesses are being crushed and working Americans are struggling to get by.
So far, workers and businesses who need money the most are either getting peanuts or nothing at all, and Senate Republicans are blocking Democratic attempts to send more financial assistance directly to those who need it.
Heck, some Americans still haven’t received a $1,200 stimulus check, even as Democrats push to send out a second round of cash payments.
In a way, this is the tax scam all over again as the Trump administration has so far given the bare minimum to American workers while showering big corporations with the rest.
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