Main Street bailout rewards U.S. restaurant chains, firms in rural states

WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Over two frantic weeks, the U.S. government pledged $350 billion to Main Street businesses across America desperate for cash after coronavirus lockdowns. Now a picture is emerging of who got the money. More than 25% of the total pot went to fewer than 2% of the firms that got relief. They include a number of publicly traded companies with thousands of employees and hundreds of millions of dollars in annual sales. The loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration - totaling $342.3 billion as of Thursday - went to companies in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and five U.S. territories, and were spread across all 20 of the main industry sectors.

Congress directed the SBA to award $349 billion to struggling businesses with 500 or fewer workers as part of a $2.3 trillion coronavirus aid package that President Donald Trump signed into law on March 27. The Payroll Protection Program (PPP) was crafted to keep Americans off unemployment benefits, by giving small and mid-sized companies forgivable loans for keeping employees on the books. The SBA does not make the loans directly but instead backs loans made by participating financial firms. The three biggest state economies - California, Texas and New York - accounted for 23% of the loans, more than $82 billion. Meanwhile, businesses in a number of small, rural states that have avoided the brunt of the outbreak took home a disproportionate share of the pie. The business sector receiving the most money was construction, with 13% of the total. The sector represents less than 9% of overall employment among U.S. firms with 500 or fewer employees, according to U.S. Census Bureau data from 2017, the latest available. Companies on the front line of the virus - in the accommodation and food services sector - received about 9% of the pot while representing nearly 14% of workers among sub-500 person firms.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-usa-lending-analys/main-street-bailout-rewards-u-s-restaurant-chains-firms-in-rural-states-idUSKBN21Z3FL

Thinking that since many of these "chains" work as franchises which are purchased individually through Corporate contracts (making each franchise a small business), they may have been able to use this loop hole to submit for this cash for their franchisee's. Question is did the franchisee's actually receive the cash?

>>8857277

These things just write themselves..this should be meme across every platform..

Arm Bands = Socialism/Communism

Welcome to the "NEW NORMAL"

>>8857513

Peter Navarro: China 'cornered' the personal protective equipment market and 'is profiteering' during coronavirus outbreak

White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro said during an exclusive interview on “Sunday Morning Futures” that China "cornered" the personal protective equipment (PPE) market during the coronavirus outbreak and “is profiteering.” Navarro, who is also the National Defense Production Act policy coordinator, made the comment on Sunday reacting to a recent Fox News report, which cited multiple sources, that there is increasing confidence that the COVID-19 outbreak likely originated in a Wuhan laboratory, though not as a bioweapon but as part of China's attempt to demonstrate that its efforts to identify and combat viruses are equal to or greater than the capabilities of the United States.

Navarro, who was one of the first to warn about the novel coronavirus, noted “China did [several things] over the course of this thing,” which, he said, “led to the deaths of many people worldwide.” “First of all, the virus was spawned in China. Second of all, they hid the virus behind the shield of the World Health Organization. The third thing they did was basically hoard personal protective equipment and now they’re profiteering from it,” Navarro told host Maria Bartiromo, referencing the fact that many states have been dealing with a shortage of PPE for health care workers during the coronavirus crisis. Sources believe the initial transmission of the virus – a naturally occurring strain that was being studied there – was bat-to-human and that "patient zero" worked at the laboratory, then went into the population in Wuhan. The sources explained that there was an extensive cover-up of data and information about COVID-19 orchestrated by the Chinese government.

Documents detail early efforts by doctors at the lab and early efforts at containment. The Wuhan wet market initially identified as a possible point of origin never sold bats, and the sources tell Fox News that blaming the wet market was an effort by China to deflect blame from the laboratory, along with the country's propaganda efforts targeting the U.S. and Italy. On Thursday, China’s foreign ministry pushed back on the suspicion that the virus escaped from the facility, by citing statements from the World Health Organization that there is no evidence the coronavirus came from a laboratory. China moved quickly to shut down travel domestically from Wuhan to the rest of China, but did not stop international flights from Wuhan. Additionally, the sources tell Fox News the World Health Organization (WHO) was complicit from the beginning in helping China cover its tracks. “What we know is that the ground zero for this virus was within a few miles of that lab,” Navarro noted. “I think it's incumbent on China to prove that it wasn't that lab,” Navarro went on to say. He added that “more importantly, we know that for a critical six-week period of time, China used its influence at the World Health Organization to hide the virus from the world. This was a time where that virus could have been contained in Wuhan; instead, 5 million Chinese people went out from Wuhan and propagated the virus around the world.”

Navarro went on to explain what he thinks “should be very disturbing to every American.” “During that period of time, that six-week interval when they were hiding this virus from the world, China went from a net exporter of personal protective equipment, they are the largest producer of that in the world, to a large net importer,” Navarro said. “They basically went around and vacuumed up virtually all of the PPE around the world, including a lot from this country, which was for humanitarian reasons sharing our PPE with them, and what that did was leave people in New York, Milan, and everywhere in-between defenseless when it came time to have that PPE.” “Now what's happening today, which is equally alarming, is China is sitting on that hoard of PPE where it cornered the market and is profiteering,” he continued. “I have cases that are coming across my desk where $0.50 masks made in China are being sold to hospitals here in America for as much as $8.”

As of Sunday, more than 2.3 million people around the world have tested positive for the new coronavirus and more than 162,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. In America more than 735,000 cases have been reported and 39,000 people have died. Navarro noted the death toll on Sunday and said that China “may attempt to use this crisis now to advance their own agenda worldwide.” He went on to say that his current focus is “to make sure people have everything they need here.”

https://www.foxnews.com/media/peter-navarro

>>8857583

Absolutely agree, we need to remember they believe they are in complete control in terms of whatever additional future plans they may have, those future plans need to be completely averted. Time to haul them in.

>>8857666

We've all been at on time or another..you can come out of the shadows now, kek..

>>8857681

>>8857706

10 flags…lights out… 1 flag, lights on…Open for business/ 1 down 9 to go??

Congress may return this week to vote on $400B small business rescue package

Lawmakers may return to Washington, D.C., this week to consider a massive spending measure that would replenish a small business aid program helping to prop up the economy during the coronavirus crisis. Majority Leader Steny Hoyer informed House lawmakers they might be summoned back to Congress as early as April 22 to consider the measure, which is not finalized but is nearing completion, according to administration officials and congressional leaders in both parties. Hoyer told lawmakers “a recorded vote is likely,” which means a quorum of members must be in the House to vote on the bill. The House and Senate are not scheduled to return to the Capitol until May 4, but the extent of the economic damage caused by the coronavirus has drained a $350 billion program providing aid to small businesses shuttered by the outbreak.

Democrats, Republicans, and the White House have been negotiating a new package to replenish the program. The new spending deal is worth about $400 billion, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told CNN on Sunday. Lawmakers in both chambers had hoped to pass the new spending package without requiring lawmakers to return to the Capitol. The Trump administration has issued social distancing guidelines until April 30, and many states have given stay-at-home orders lasting into May and June. Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, is likely to block the House from passing the bill by unanimous consent or by voice vote, which do not require a quorum of lawmakers to vote in-person. Massie and other lawmakers want Speaker Nancy Pelosi to allow remote voting rather than simply pass a major bill without lawmakers registering their support or opposition. “Members are further advised that at this time, a recorded vote on the interim legislation is likely in the House this week,” Hoyer told lawmakers Sunday. “Members will be given sufficient notice about the exact timing of any votes and when they will need to return to Washington, D.C.”

President Trump and Mnuchin held a conference call with Republican lawmakers the same day and said a deal is near on the package. Mnuchin told Republicans he’s still negotiating with Democrats on additional funding for coronavirus testing. Democratic demands for $150 billion in additional state and local funding, as well as a 15% increase for food stamps, will not be included in the bill, Mnuchin told lawmakers. “Leader McConnell closed the call by saying legislative text and a scheduling update will be provided as quickly as possible,” a senior GOP leadership aide said. Mnuchin told CNN the deal will include $300 billion for small business aid, $75 billion for hospitals and medical facilities, and $25 billion for states to invest in coronavirus testing. “I’m hopeful that we can reach an agreement, that the Senate can pass this tomorrow, and that the House can take it up on Tuesday, and Wednesday, we'd be back up and running,” he said on State of the Union. The Senate is scheduled to hold a pro-forma session on Monday and could pass the measure by unanimous consent or voice vote, unless a lawmaker objects. The next pro-forma session in the House is scheduled for Tuesday, April. 21, but with Massie’s looming objection, it’s not likely Democrats who run the chamber would be able to pass the small business aid legislation if it is sent over by the Senate.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/congress-may-return-this-week-to-vote-on-400b-small-business-rescue-package