$755B was forgiven. I know that there are many benefits for this program but I cannot resist comparing this with the NSF budget. This is equal to about 75.5 years of the current NSF budget (assuming constant budget but unlikely as there is planned deep cuts). If we assume that the budget will increase 5% to adjust for inflation (unlikely too) then that would about 32yrs. Not that I'm comparing in absolute usefulness. I just don't understand why this particular item in the budget making all this noise while comparing to the vast majority of programs is peanuts.
It's been discussed before but I'll go ahead and say it again. Any administration that was actually serious about cutting spending to benefit the American people would start with cutting unnecessary defense projects and large scale healthcare reform. Those categories take up the vast, vast majority of the budget. But instead, they cut the programs projecting benevolence to the world and protecting us from tuberculosis outbreaks because they were "full of marxists" and then proceeded to outline a horrifying plan for expansion that would certainly increase defense costs. There isn't actual logic here, it's based on subjective feelings and lies designed to appease voters and enrage them at the other side. God forbid there ever be any deep thought or nuance to anything.
One causes "the base" to dig in even deeper in their support. The other makes people happen under subsequent administrations. Americans' addictions to cheap sugar doesn't end at literal donuts.
I have almost $50k in that number. (1099 income.) It was a waste.
A friend was a senior staffer negotiating that bill. We were together, in 2020, when these bills were drafted and passed. My friend aimed to exempt people like me from forgiveness. I, of course, didn't mind the free money, but know that for my $50k there are the e.g. Ciprianis borrowing millions only to transfer it, immediately, to their personal accounts. Even selfishly, I was a net payer.
They never managed to exempt me. So I applied for the loans, got them, never paid a dime, applied for forgiveness, got it and then walked away. (I didn't fire myself, nor even cut my hours!) Granted, these sums are peanuts compared with the bonanza I'm about to reap with Trump's TCJA mark 2. But at least that's plainly a giveaway to the wealthy.
Don’t know about the OPs case, but forgiveness was based on meeting the requirements of the program: 60% of the loan to employees and 40% to approved employer expenses (business overhead such as rent and electricity).
I assisted with the submission of PPP forgiveness for 4 restaurants.
Many sole proprietorships registered and individuals in my area have these loans. I suspect this was a major contributor to inflation.
For example, a neighbor who owns several franchised restaurants received a few million in PPP loans. But during COVID he also bought a Cirrus Vision Jet. Very suspicious.
The PPP loan program is a borrower self-certified program. Meaning the gov't did absolutely nothing to ensure funds actually went to payroll.
In my area, US attorneys recently went after someone for misuse of PPP money and got a judgemental against him. The person who turned him in got a big, fat reward.
Feature Request: I really wish there was a button to use the zip code where I'm looking on the map. I don't have zip codes memorized. So I see a bunch of pins around the zip code of my childhood home and then the rest of the map is blank. My only option is to open google maps in another window and copy paste zip codes back and forth. Cool website though - despite the effort to navigate I'm finding a lot out.
Almost all the loan availability were spoken for within hours. The grifters got there first, and the people who really needed the help often got stiffed. The Catholic Church took PPP loans and used it to pay off all the lawsuits from their priests raping kids.
I’d posit that $3.5m is a drop in the bucket when compared to the $600 _billion_ budget of the program itself. Linking to a law firm blog isn’t doing any favors if you’re trying to present yourself as objective here.
It seems disingenuous and pretty transparently ideologically motivated to try and make a shaky connection to pastor abuse, truthfully I think you can do better.
>and the people who really needed the help often got stiffed.
Just one anecdata, but we (family business) were "people who really needed the help" and got approved for PPP, both times. You needed to be fairly timely on applying because of the absurd demand, though.
We had to file paperwork including our payroll, income/loss sheets and more with our bank (not SBA) who actually did most of the groundwork because any PPP loan not forgiven is on the bank's dime.
The purpose of running the money through employers via PPP was to ensure the socioeconomic rankings didn’t change, so that employees still needed their employers.
Giving everyone more cash with no strings attached would have given them more negotiating power against employers.
I immediately noticed this as well. In many cases, they weren't even LLCs, just names.
Maybe my memory is hazy from that period, but I don't recall the clear call to action to request five-figure loans as an individual, (almost) all of which appear forgiven.
I looked for my family's businesses and other old friends and didn't find any of them. Texted my parents about this and they sound as surprised as me, and they have had a small local business for about a decade before Covid. My mom wasn't even aware that they would be eligible. And yet I see individuals, and others in my hometown whose businesses consist of only them and possibly one other person (likely part-time) made out with tens of thousands of dollars, all forgiven. Self-employed and sole proprietorships even. One family who I was always suspicious about how they always had whatever disposable money was needed for anything (the primary income was a local vending machine business) got $187k in this, according to this site. All forgiven.
So many loans in my small town! Since covid it seems like there is so much new money in the town, I guess now I know where it came from. No way all this was spent on legitimate payroll.
I had an LLC but didn't get a loan, I feel like a sucker but, at least I don't feel dirty.
The IRS has been investigating for years and secured at least 800 indictments.. I wonder if they’ll be defunded like all of the other arbitrary and self-destructive cuts across the government.
Readit News
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But otherwise yes, Defense, Medicare, and Social Security are the largest expenditures.
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I have almost $50k in that number. (1099 income.) It was a waste.
A friend was a senior staffer negotiating that bill. We were together, in 2020, when these bills were drafted and passed. My friend aimed to exempt people like me from forgiveness. I, of course, didn't mind the free money, but know that for my $50k there are the e.g. Ciprianis borrowing millions only to transfer it, immediately, to their personal accounts. Even selfishly, I was a net payer.
They never managed to exempt me. So I applied for the loans, got them, never paid a dime, applied for forgiveness, got it and then walked away. (I didn't fire myself, nor even cut my hours!) Granted, these sums are peanuts compared with the bonanza I'm about to reap with Trump's TCJA mark 2. But at least that's plainly a giveaway to the wealthy.
https://www.crfb.org/blogs/trump-tax-priorities-total-5-11-t...
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I assisted with the submission of PPP forgiveness for 4 restaurants.
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For example, a neighbor who owns several franchised restaurants received a few million in PPP loans. But during COVID he also bought a Cirrus Vision Jet. Very suspicious.
The PPP loan program is a borrower self-certified program. Meaning the gov't did absolutely nothing to ensure funds actually went to payroll.
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https://www.wmlawyers.com/2020/07/sex-abuse-victims-outraged...
Just one anecdata, but we (family business) were "people who really needed the help" and got approved for PPP, both times. You needed to be fairly timely on applying because of the absurd demand, though.
We had to file paperwork including our payroll, income/loss sheets and more with our bank (not SBA) who actually did most of the groundwork because any PPP loan not forgiven is on the bank's dime.
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Giving everyone more cash with no strings attached would have given them more negotiating power against employers.
Maybe my memory is hazy from that period, but I don't recall the clear call to action to request five-figure loans as an individual, (almost) all of which appear forgiven.
I had an LLC but didn't get a loan, I feel like a sucker but, at least I don't feel dirty.
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-criminal-investigation-rele...
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But one of them is a whopping $661,500.00 to a cloud communications company. Such a joke!
Covid ruined our local family business. We didn’t see a cent despite applying left and right.