The Small Business Administration has closed off applications for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program. This is a long-standing Small Business Administration program that’s separate from the new Paycheck Protection Program, which is also facing severe challenges in funding.
Congress gave the disaster loan program more than $50 billion in new funding in recent relief bills to offer quick loans to businesses impacted by the pandemic shutdown.
According to the Washington Post, the disaster-loan limit has been slashed from $2 million to $150,000 per business.
But the administration did not publicly announce the change, leading to confusion and distress for already-distressed businesses.
Meanwhile, the much larger bailout fund that Trump put the federal reserve in charge of has been handed over to Trump’s friends at BlackRock—which manages over $7 trillion in assets.
BlackRock will steer as much as $750 billion into the corporate debt market for the Fed, according to the Wall Street Journal. The company will be central to the multi-trillion-dollar overall program of central-bank support to the economy and markets, a program that will help decide which businesses survive the pandemic.
BlackRock partnered with the Fed during the 2008 financial meltdown, helping the central bank oversee Bear Stearns and American International Group (AIG) assets. Both of these companies failed miserably due to their massive corruption and cronyism.
The company’s role in the current crisis will be far bigger than in 2008, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Progressives expressed alarm over BlackRock's outsize power over such a massive pot of public money.
Lamar Alexander, a top Republican senator who supported a $1.5 trillion tax cut for the rich and a multi-trillion-dollar corporate slush fund, came under fire for comments he made Sunday.
Alexander said that there is quote "not enough money" to provide relief to everyone harmed by the coronavirus pandemic.
His statement came as millions of people across the U.S. struggle to afford basic necessities, but trillions of dollars have been allocated to the wealthiest one percent by Alexander and his colleagues in Congress.
The Working Families Party said that Republicans quote "took care of their billionaire buddies and Wall Street bankers, and now they're trying to say there's 'not enough' left to help you and your family."
According to a report today by Vice Magazine, the Trump administration ban on using human fetal tissue resulting from abortions has severely slowed the search for a COVID19 vaccine in the US.
Researchers around the globe are racing to develop treatments and a vaccine to fight the coronavirus.
But the Trump administration policy, beloved by opponents of abortion, has created a de facto ban on using fetal tissue for new research.
Irving Weissman, a Stanford University researcher, told Vice that by delaying things, by bureaucratizing things, by putting in these religious or moral or political barriers, the Trump administration is condemning people to death who might have been saved.
Meanwhile in Washington, the Trump administration is trying again to force cuts to the social security program – this time in exchange for much-needed direct payments to lower income and newly-unemployed Americans.
This is just the latest attempt by the administration to gut the nation’s entitlement program, which is the only universal support for elders in the U.S.
Cutting social security would force many more elders into poverty and homelessness, and would sharply increase death rates for elders in our society.
Alex Lawson of Social Security Works responded to Trump’s so-called ‘Eagle Plan’ by saying that quote "Social Security is an earned insurance benefit. It is not a piggy bank. This plan, and any plan that raids Social Security, is a moral abomination."
Amid this global pandemic that has left more than 30 million people in the U.S. jobless, and eighty thousand dead with no end in sight, Trump's top economic stimulus idea has been cutting the payroll tax, which funds Social Security and Medicare.
The president said during a Fox News town hall last week that he would not sign any future Covid-19 stimulus package that does not include a payroll tax cut.
Critics point out that this statement shows Trump is once again putting his political agenda ahead of human lives.
Meanwhile, in the global fight against COVID19, the World Health Organization has issued conditional support for Controversial trials in which volunteers are intentionally infected with Covid-19.
The WHO has released new guidance on how the approach could be ethically justified despite the potential dangers for participants, because these trials could accelerate vaccine development.
So-called challenge trials are a mainstream approach in vaccine development and have been used in malaria, typhoid and flu.
But there are treatments available for these diseases if a volunteer becomes severely ill.
For Covid-19, a safe dose of the virus has not been established and there are no failsafe treatments if things go wrong.
In Oregon, Governor Kate Brown signed an executive order Friday extending the state of emergency to July 6.
The original declaration was signed March 8. It was set to expire on May 7.
The new executive order gives the governor the legal authority to maintain the orders she’s issued thus far — including the stay-home order, a moratorium on residential and commercial evictions and other financial stimulus measures.
A reminder to all our listeners that the Governors of Oregon and Washington have issued executive orders for all residents to stay home unless doing essential work or going out to make essential purchases. This helps slow the spread of this virus, and appears to be working in both states – as long as people continue to follow the orders to remain home and stay separated from other people.
- KBOO