The fine print

The Cares Act was supposed to help everyday Americans through the lock-down. But when you look back on 2020, the Extreme Rich, Millionaires, and Billionaires received the bigger slice of the Cares Act pie. 

An estimated $257.95 billion went to millionaires and billionaires who did not need the money. $10 million, the max amount a small business can receive went to a local NC company, The Budd Group. If that name is not familiar, that is my former congressional opponent Rep. Ted Budd’s family business.  Soon afterwards, Ted Budd was looking to buy an airplane to fly between D.C. and his family's private airstrip. Coincidence? 

Also, since the pandemic –  Target & Lowe’s have doubled their profits.  Walmart & Amazon - Jeff Bezos is $117 billion richer. 

Regular folks, like you and I, received $293.37 billion of the Cares Act stimulus. That is our $1,200 check.  If that $257.95 billion could have combined with the $293.73 it would have boosted our stimulus checks to $2,400 or more. 

Corporations made out big time with more tax breaks. There is always a tax break in the fine print somewhere. The Cares Act increased the deductible level of corporate debt from 30% to 50%. 

Corporations can now receive refunds of 35% of their losses going back several years. What does this do? It reduces the tax revenue, allowing corporations to pay less in taxes while millions of Americans are paying more. 

Our tax dollars are not coming back to us, it is being redistributed to the rich and corporations. This is the wealth redistribution Republicans warned us about. 

This pandemic has grotesquely inflamed income inequality. Before the Covid19 pandemic hit our nation and forced 1000’s of businesses to shutter forever, it created 52 new billionaires for a total of 659. 

In contrast, it sent millions to the unemployment lines, food bank lines, and homeless shelters.  

Those billionaires have a combined wealth of 4 Trillion dollars and 10 of those hold more than 1 Trillion. 10 people. It is simply wrong. I keep saying we live in #Two Americas. The #extremerich and everybody else. This pandemic has accelerated the divide. We need to stop electing millionaires to represent the public in Washington D.C. Do you honestly think they listen to our concerns? Do you think, they understand our struggles from pay-check to pay-check?

They use the power of the people to deny us the help we need. The Republicans through Sen. Mitch McConnell could not even give us a $2,000 check.

The last time I checked almost 800,000 people filed for unemployment this last week.  In some states like NC that's $300 a week.  Who can live on little money?  As voters, we need to pay attention to income inequality and what our leaders are doing to us.  Cause it looks like they are doing everything for themselves and corporations.

Sources:
NBC Business News – Wall Street minted 56 new billionaires since the pandemic began… by Martha C. White
ProPublica – The CARES Act sent you a $1,200 Check but Gave Millionaires and Billionaires Far More. by Allan Sloan