Yesterday’s announcement that Steve Mnuchin would not provide any details of $500 billion in stimulus funding was shocking because the Democrats tried to provide oversight requirements and prevent exactly this:
Note: U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Congress Wednesday that the Trump administration intends to keep secret the names of the businesses that have received more than $500 billion in COVID-19 bailout funds through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), claiming the information is “confidential.”
Even by the Trump administration’s infinitesimally low standards for accountability and oversight, this announcement was jaw-dropping.
www.citizen.org/…
The reason for this secrecy is apparently that it is somehow “unfair” for the public to know which companies are benefiting.
Occam’s Razor says something else! What is the most likely reason that a former Goldman Sachs executive (Mnuchin) and the biggest grifter on the planet (Trump) do not want to reveal where billions of dollars went?
This is not a small amount of money. I have no proof, but I suspect thatTrump’s hundred of interconnected single member LLCs received a total of $1 billion or maybe up to $10 billion. If this was true, secrecy and obfuscation would be the order of the day.
Do you really think that Trump would pass on a mass looting opportunity? Yes, I know he is not really a good businessman, etc. But look who was actually handling the loan decisions. Mnuchin is the only competent player in the administration. He negotiated the last two big legislative packages directly with Nancy Pelosi. Would Trump agree to let Mnuchin do some “creative funding”?
Bottom line — I do not see anyway that Trump did not pull at least a billion out of this. Mnuchin, of course, will screw Trump over and pull even more.
After all the hundreds of millions he has lost, this will put Trump over the billionaire line, at least for now.
Perhaps some investigation of this is appropriate!