Real Estate Agents Received $3.9 Billion in PPP Loans
Jose Nino
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Few of these recipients have paid their loans back.
According to Tyler Durden of Zerohedge, the federal government disbursed 300,000 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to the real estate industry. But there’s a catch, as Durden observed, “few of them have been paid back despite a booming housing market as the Covid-19 pandemic ran its course.”
Per data from the government’s Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, roughly $3.9 billion was given to real estate entities that had one employee on the books. The average loan stood around at $13,000. According to an NBC News report, 146 entities received over $90,000 each.
The bulk of the loans were forgiven if the recipients complied with certain criteria, which includes spending 60% of the loan on payroll and the remaining portion of eligible expenses. In the case of realtors, $3.1 out of the $3.9 billion in PP loans have been forgiven.
The Small Business Administration oversees PPP loans and claims it has denied forgiveness for roughly 12,000 loans out of the 9.9 million it has granted. Approximately 4,200 borrowers have appealed that decision.
A senior SBA official noted that these programs were passed with bipartisan support and were “extremely liberal” and “extremely generous” with regards to loan forgiveness.
While a case can be made for emergency loans and economic reparations to businesses who were forced to shut down due to state and federal policies, there clearly needs to be limits set on how much money is loaned out and to who should qualify for said funds. With the type of ruling class that occupies DC, such programs will be rife with corruption. A more pragmatic way to handle these programs is to have them devolved to the states.
All told, right-wing populists need to take charge of policy matters in DC to prevent such a deluge in spending and only use the federal purse for matters of critical transportation infrastructure and actual national defense. Any spending beyond that, is fiscal abuse.
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