Ilhan Omar blasts $500B in federal aid for large companies: 'This is bulls--t'
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Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar blasted a $500 billion Federal Reserve program aimed at aiding large companies through the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday.
“This is bulls--t,” she tweeted, linking to a Washington Post report on the plan.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Fed will buy up bonds issued by the companies, giving them a cash boost that will be repaid later with interest, according to the report.
The part that drew Omar’s ire is that the aid is exempt from a number of oversight measures Congress had approved for other coronavirus relief funds. Those rules include limits on corporate stock buybacks and protections for workers from layoffs.
But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the Post that the plan was “highly discussed on a bipartisan basis” and that lawmakers actually had settled on it.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“What we agreed upon was direct loans would carry the restrictions, and the capital markets transactions would not carry the restrictions,” he told the paper.
Omar’s own proposed coronavirus relief measures include rent and mortgage cancellations, monthly relief payments and the elimination of student loan debt.
She has also called for a “national lockdown,” the “radical” takeover of private hospitals, as well as the release of ICE detainees and “people held on bail” in response to the crisis.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Social distancing restrictions and the widespread closures of nonessential businesses aimed at slowing the coronavirus’ spread have left millions of Americans unable to work and many more also feeling a strain on their wallets.
HOUSE PASSES $484B CORONAVIRUS SMALL BUSINESS RELIEF BILL, SENDS TO TRUMP
To try and keep the economy afloat, Washington lawmakers and the Trump administration have taken a number of measures aimed at protecting workers and businesses, including relief packages that include the $2.2 trillion CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection Plan (PPP).
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The PPP is designed to keep small businesses open and workers on the payroll as the economy sputters due to the shutdowns. But some larger companies, like Shake Shack and Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse, received loans under the program and drew backlash before returning the funds.
Harvard University, with its $40 billion endowment, returned $9 million it received under the CARES Act after public comments from President Trump.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The incidents caught the attention of Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, who questioned whether the small business relief program was actually benefiting larger companies.
"Corporate greed on Wall Street cannot be allowed to subvert a program designed to deliver much-needed relief to small businesses to help keep the lights on," Hawley wrote in a letter to Secretary Mnuchin Tuesday.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Mnuchin and Small Business Administrator Jovita Carranza issued a joint statement Tuesday announcing that authorities would begin reviewing all PPP loans of more than $2 million.