Big surprise: The Trump/McConnell 'urgent' COVID-19 small business loans were dumped into red states

They're thieves.

There is absolutely every reason for Democrats to refuse to hand Mitch McConnell and Donald Trump another $250 billion in "small business" emergency loans in the new Paycheck Protection Program included in the CARES stimulus package. The fund was exhausted Thursday, and Democrats have been holding out McConnell’s attempts to dump more money into it. They’ve got really good reasons, including this big one—typical Trumpian politics. Look at where the money went:

I’m hard pressed not to think that this is political. Blue states like California got a pathetic number of loans issued. Nebraska got nearly 75% of loans requested. I smell a rat with orange hair. https://t.co/IWK2anAOHI

— Jackie Speier (@RepSpeier) April 16, 2020

Three-quarters of Nebraska’s eligible payroll got the funding; 71% of North Dakota’s did. That powerhouse of the nation’s business, North Dakota. While California’s and New York’s got less than a quarter of their share. D.C. only got 19%. Yeah, that definitely smells like a rat.

It also helps confirm suspicions raised earlier this week. Rep. Speier of California tweeted on Tuesday about the initial reports from the Small Business Administration: “Can someone explain to me how Texas has been approved for $1 billion more in SBA loans—& more than 30,000  loans!- than California despite our economy being $1 trillion larger & California being much harder hit by COVID-19?”

Democrats want to make sure that there isn’t a repeat of this, that the next $250 billion goes where the need is the greatest, not where Trump wants to reward his base and, incidentally, help some vulnerable Republican senators.