Category: PaycheckProtectionProgram

Millions in COVID-19 aid has gone to right-wing groups that usually oppose government aid

Posted on by Laura Clawson

Conservative groups have long railed against government assistance, including even against economic stimulus during the coronavirus pandemic, but—surprise!—that hasn’t stopped many of them from taking millions in the aid themselves, an analysis conducted as part of Accountable.US's CovidBailoutTracker.com project shows.

Back in May, a long list of right-wing groups signed a Conservative Action Project letter opposing “federally funded bailouts for states and local governments.” At least eight of those groups were just fine with federally funded bailouts for their own bank accounts, though: They collectively took more than $2.25 million in CARES Act aid, with three taking money both from the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. (Disclosure: Kos Media received a Paycheck Protection Program loan.) (But Kos Media wasn’t a giant hypocrite about it.)

Overall, at least 75 conservative organizations took COVID-19-related aid, most of it from the PPP, but with at least 14 organizations also getting EIDL money, for a combined amount of more than $18 million. Not all of them had specifically spoken out against the CARES Act or other coronavirus-related relief, but for instance, in March Liberty Counsel complained that “the $2 trillion-dollar spending bill is still being written as members of Congress are being pressured to pass it. Democrat House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Whip Chuck Schumer have inserted funding totally unrelated to the virus.” The organization then went on to get a $428,100 PPP loan, followed by another one for $10,000.

Just as the Trump and Kushner family businesses got PPP loans, so too did a lot of right-wing groups with deep Trump ties. Like Jay Sekulow’s group, the American Center for Law and Justice, which provided some of Donald Trump’s impeachment lawyers and has been paid more than $250,000 by the Republican National Committee in recent years—it got $1.23 million. The Remembrance Project, which specializes in providing Trump events with victims of crimes committed by immigrants, got $75,000 from the EIDL and $15,600 from the PPP.

American Majority and American Majority Action trained legions of tea partiers to rail against government aid, back in the tea party era. In the COVID-19 era they took a combined $130,000 in government aid.

“It’s always fascinating to see people who’ve made careers out of bashing what they see as ‘big government’ being among the first in line for a taxpayer handout during a crisis,” said Jeremy Funk, spokesman for Accountable.US, the nonpartisan government watchdog that put together the COVID Bailout Tracker. “They wave their finger at federal relief spending for local governments and working families, but don’t seem to mind when it benefits them. But this goes way beyond hypocrisy. These groups join the long list of rich and well-connected supporters of Donald Trump who were allowed to take millions from a program intended for struggling small businesses. It’s an insult to all the mom-and-pops in communities of color that couldn’t access a penny from the PPP under the Trump administration’s poor design and management.”  

That may not be the worst of it, though—$4.8 million in PPP and EIDL money went to 25 organizations designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Luxury hotel chains, including Gordon Sondland’s, among those capitalizing on ‘small business’ loans

Posted on by Joan McCarter

Remember Gordon Sondland? Of course you do, from back in the before time when the national crisis was impeachment. He’s the now-former ambassador to the European Union, who got that cushy job by being a big donor to Donald Trump's inaugural committee. Trump might have fired him from that sweet gig, but that doesn't mean Sondland's out of the money loop with Republicans at all. Because guess who got some of that "small business" coronavirus emergency loan money?

Provenance Hotels, the hotel chain Sondland owns, got some of that loan money according to a spokeswoman, along with some very wealthy, very connected to Republican lawmaker hoteliers. How much Sondland landed isn't clear, but the company spokesperson told the Portland Business Journal: "Now that we have been approved for our SBA PPP loan, we hope to bring back a significant portion of those employees and retain them for as long as possible." Let's certainly hope so. Not all business are doing so, figuring the terms of the loans are so good that it doesn't matter if they flout the rules and spend the money on other costs.

One of the biggest winners was Dallas hotel executive Monty Bennett, also a Trump major donor. He got a combined $59 million for three of his companies—Braemar Hotels & Resorts, which operates a Ritz-Carlton in St. Thomas; Ashford Hospitality Trust Inc., which operates 100 or so hotel properties around the country; and finally the management firm that oversees both chains. Bennett's given Trump $150,000 just in the last six months, and was rewarded nicely. Ashford’s group said in a statement that the loan program "is working exactly as intended by providing much needed capital to small businesses and larger businesses that have been the hardest hit—hotels and restaurants." The Bloomberg article doesn't say whether Ashford also claimed to be retaining its employees.

It does, however, report that Ashford expects to get more loans on top of the $30 million it got in the first round. If Bennett is spending all that money on keeping his 1,000 or so employees paid, great—keeping people afloat right now is the main thing.

But when this is all over? There had better damned well be a wealth tax that claws this money back.