Correction, it was the restaurant industry lobbyists…
I just turned on today’s briefing and heard the end of Mnuchin’s remarks in response to a question about the PPP. Did I really just hear him say any of the big companies, or publicly traded companies, have to give the money back that they got under that program so it can go to actual small businesses? Did he really just say that or was I hallucinating?
Yes that is the position of the White House
D’oh! Please accept my apologies. My fault. 
For government contracts in a lot of cases small businesses can be up to 500 people so that is probably where the 500 number came from. To me 500 is not small but to the government it is. And sometimes the small place will work with a large company. That’s OK as long as the small places does 51% of the work.
If you think of a mom and pop store as a small business then 500 employees doesn’t sound small. We don’t have a Medium Business Administration though, 500 is the dividing line between small and big. As big as it sounds, not many businesses with 500 employees could afford to buy a senator or congressman to look out for their interests. So the SBA saves politicians from wasting a lot of personal time on businesses with limited ability to bribe them with campaign donations.
Also for gov. contracts they will let you stay designated as small even if you go over 500 people. They do that by letting you average number of employees over the last few years.
Goddammit. Now I want a cheeseburger and fries from Shake Shack. I don’t know what terrible franchisee served you, but my experience has been the opposite. Their burgers are above average, and their fries are just perfectly crisp and salty on the outside and fluffy and steamy on the inside.
Wikipedia says Shake Shack has over 6000 employees. I suppose most of them are employed by franchise owners, and the actual company has <500 direct employees? If that’s allowed, that seems like a major loophole.
Harvard with their giant endowment has told the feds to pound sand. They are keeping their CV money.
No they didn’t. Harvard reverses course, rejects nearly $9 million in stimulus money after backlash from Trump, critics - MarketWatch
Unless I misinterpreted what you meant.
Did you miss the headline that said Harvard reversed course?
How did you interpret what Bijou Drains wrote? It appeared to me that he was saying Harvard refused to give the money back.
He probably read this story about Harvard refusing to return its grant.
yes that post from me was before I heard they were shamed into giving the money back.
They announced today that they were returning it. Doesn’t make them applying for it less shitty, but there you go.
The money Harvard received (and been coerced into returning) does come from the CARES Act, but is not a PPP loan. It did not come out of the $350 billion allocated to support small businesses. From NPR:
p.s. Why do people attack attack companies & institutions for following the law, rather than attacking the people who wrote the law or lobbied for it? It always seems to happen - especially with taxes and government subsidies/grants.
If there was no legal obligation, that is, there was some voluntary act, then it is justified to blame the company or institution for making an unethical choice. Just because the law allows you to do something doesn’t mean it’s okay for you to do it. The fact that someone else might also be responsible for creating the situation doesn’t excuse you.
you can attack both the company and the people who wrote the law. A lot of people have attacked Congress who wrote the loopholes these companies used.