D.C. Prep School Beloved by Dem Leaders Refuses to Return Gov’t Loan

[Geee]

Free Beacon

A $50 million endowment, a massive capital campaign in the works, and a wealthy, well-connected board—none stopped a D.C. prep school from taking one of the largest coronavirus loans issued.

Sidwell Friends School, a Quaker-affiliated independent school known for enrolling top lawmakers' children—including the daughters of former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama—accepted a $5.2 million loan under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Congress's bailout fund for small businesses affected by the coronavirus crisis.

The school, which brings in over $40 million in tuition annually, declined to give back the loan after Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin called on "private schools with significant endowments" to "return" PPP funds. In a letter to the community, the board of trustees cited its "fiduciary responsibilities" as well as "our Quaker values" in its decision to keep the money—with the latter claim particularly raising eyebrows among critics.

[Geee]

Who Gets Bailed Out Next? -Congress gets ready to pick some more lucky winners.

Like it or not, this is a time when borrowing money makes sense. We are facing a severe but temporary economic disaster, and we can smooth out the damage by having the federal government offset the losses of businesses, workers, and even lower levels of government (which don’t have the feds’ capacity to take on debt and usually can’t do so legally anyway). Especially with interest rates so low, it will be less painful to pay off the debt in future years than it would be to absorb the losses all at once.

 

But once the feeding trough is open, everyone lines up, and Congress has to choose who gets what. Here are three of the big questions that the Republican-led Senate faces as it considers adding another round of funding to the trillions of dollars we’ve already spent. Democrats in the House, you may have heard, have already picked their $3 trillions’ worth of winners.

1. How much money should the states get?

 

This is the big one. COVID-19 has torpedoed tax revenues and increased reliance on safety-net programs, wreaking havoc on state finances. “Rainy day” funds are running dry, and previous relief bills didn’t give much to states. It doesn’t help that so many states dug themselves into a hole long before the virus attacked by mismanaging their pension funds.

The tensions over whether and how to help states are entirely predictable. The states most desperately in need of aid are dense blue ones, which were hit hardest by the virus but also did the worst job managing their pensions. Even if you start with the assumption that a bailout of some kind is justified, there’s no great way to dole it out. Does it go to the states with the most financial need? The most COVID-19 deaths? Or what?

[Geee]

10 Pet Projects in Pelosi's $3T 'Democratic Wish List' Coronavirus Bill