THE REAL LOOTING: Mnuchin Blocked Oversight of COVID-19 Rescue Funds For Months

This is the real looting, right in front of us.   The American people deserve to know how their money is being spent.  We need full transparency.  Elected officials and the citizens resisted firmly on this and late last week, we won.... for now.

The U.S. has spent more than half of $3 trillion in economic rescue funds passed by Congress -- with little of the oversight intended to ensure the money goes to the right places.

The Trump administration’s intensifying efforts to block oversight of its coronavirus-related rescue programs are raising new alarms with government watchdogs and lawmakers from both parties amid concerns about the anonymity of companies receiving unprecedented levels of taxpayer funds.

Mnuchin surprised many lawmakers last week when he announced he would not allow the names of Paycheck Protection Program recipients to become public after the Trump administration had said for months that the data would eventually be disclosed.

There's no reason to hide PPP information from the public unless the administration has something to hide.  If a trillion-dollar program is run well, the people running it would be eager to talk about their wise use of taxpayer dollars. 

....growing bipartisan frustration over the administration’s decision not to disclose how it is spending hundreds of billions in aid for businesses.

Some of the oversight bodies are barely functional: A special inspector general was only recently sworn in, a congressional panel still lacks a chairman and staff, and Trump quickly removed the official who was going to lead a separate accountability committee.

Government watchdogs warned members of Congress last week that previously unknown Trump administration legal decisions could substantially block their ability to oversee more than $1 trillion in spending related to the coronavirus pandemic.

The letter from the inspectors general and Mnuchin’s insistence that the PPP data will not be released come after the White House has repeatedly rebuffed efforts to scrutinize where the taxpayer funding is going.

The sheer size of the pandemic response means there’s a wide swath of issues to investigate.  Giant companies scooping up relief meant for small businesses with independent oversight blocked. 

At least four members of Congress have reaped benefits in some way from the half-trillion-dollar small-business loan program they helped create. And no one knows how many more there could be.

It’s a bipartisan group of lawmakers who have acknowledged close ties to companies that have received loans from the program — businesses that are either run by their families or employ their spouse as a senior executive.

Republicans on the list include Rep. Roger Williams of Texas, a wealthy businessman who owns auto dealerships, body shops and car washes, and Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri, whose family owns multiple farms and equipment suppliers across the Midwest.

Wow.  We must hold this administration accountable as it hands out trillions in relief and our voices are winning.

Democrats have tried to pry free the list of recipients. But their push in the House to require disclosure of at least some companies was blocked on the floor late last month by Republicans....  “This is the largest distributor of taxpayer money in human history, and we need to ensure taxpayers know where it’s going,” the author of that bill, Rep. Dean Phillips, said.

Trump will soon be seeking another vast bailout package, while refusing to provide information about how prior money was used for months until finally relenting.

Mnuchin has so far refused to disclose the recipients of those loans... “Among other steps, the Administration should release the names of all PPP borrowers,” a group of senior Democrats wrote in a letter to Mnuchin.... Democrats have said the White House is not taking disclosure

“They seem to be saying one thing while doing exactly the opposite,” said Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee. “If the Trump administration is committed to full cooperation and transparency with taxpayer dollars, it is unclear why it is manufacturing legal loopholes to avoid responding to legitimate oversight requests.”requests seriously enough.

If Mnuchin won't tell us who Treasury gave a trillion dollars, Congress should use its authority to reduce the salaries of ALL political appointees in the Treasury Department and the Office of Management and Budget to $1.

 

Sources:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/15/inspector-general-oversight-mnuchin-cares-act/

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/06/16/congress-small-business-loan-320625

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-06-19/wall-street-expects-a-covid-19-vaccine-before-the-u-s-election

Date: 
Tuesday, June 23, 2020