TOP 10 TAKEAWAYS
1. PANDEMIC RESPONSE: Congress provided 44 federal agencies with total resources of $4.68 trillion – today, total outlays are $4.3 trillion. Every dime was borrowed against our national debt.
2. THE KICKOFF: The CARES Act increased federal deficits by $1.7 trillion including $988 billion in increased mandatory outlays, $408 billion decreased revenues, and $326 billion increased discretionary outlays.
3. LARGEST PUBLIC FRAUD IN HISTORY: An estimated $400 billion in fraud the Covid-aid programs due to a rushed rollout and lax oversight. (Math: $100 billion in Paycheck Protection Program waste; $200 billion in stolen unemployment aid; and $80 billion in economic disaster loans; plus billions in other frauds such as TANF and SNAP — now estimated at $1 billion per month).
4. THE PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM (PPP) doled out $787 billion to allow businesses and nonprofits to pay employees when they were forced to close. Nearly half of the largest 300 law firms and three quarters of the largest accounting firms were forgiven on their loans. Up to $200 billion was stolen from the programs for small businesses.
5. THE HIGHER EDUCATION EMERGENCY RELIEF FUND doled out $76 billion to colleges and universities. The top 25 universities with the largest endowments received $801.3 million in CARES Act subsidies alone, while those schools held a collective $350 billion in their endowments. From all three pandemic aid bills, the top 25 schools received $4.2 billion in Covid-aid despite having $482 billion in their collective endowments.
6. UNEMPLOYMENT AID FROM PANDEMIC PROGRAMS cost $888 billion through July 31, 2023. It’s estimated that $191 billion to $400 billion was stolen by criminals, con artists, and crime syndicates from around the world.
7. NONPROFIT HOSPITALS RACKED UP BIG PROFITS: Medical providers received $175 billion in aid. The top 20 largest nonprofit hospitals received $23 billion and their net assets increased by $124 billion during the pandemic years.
8. MAJOR AIRLINES were boosted with $54 billion allocated by Congress. Yet, Southwest ($7.2 billion subsidy) couldn’t keep a plane in the air and canceled Christmas for 2 million customers.
9. DEAD PEOPLE PAID BILLIONS IN ‘STIMULUS’: Direct payments to individuals in the form of economic stimulus checks totaled $271 billion including $3.6 billion paid to 2.2 million dead people. The IRS rushed the payments without checking Social Security’s ‘deceased persons’ list!
10. BAILOUT FOR STATES RUNNING SURPLUSES: California, with a $75 billion budget surplus, received $26 billion. Florida and Texas were running surpluses and received big billion-dollar bailouts.
Read the full report.