Harris announces $1.7B in grants for more than 600 community lenders
By: Lauren Sforza (The Hill)
The Biden administration is gifting public money directly to banks? This $1.7 billion in grants (of all things) will saddle these communities with about $25 billion in debt (including interest). How is this a good thing?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
April 6, 2023 -- Vice President Harris on Monday announced $1.7 billion in grants for more than 600 community lenders to support small businesses, entrepreneurs, nonprofits, housing and commercial real estate as they seek to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic.
Harris announced the grants as part of the Treasury Department's Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, saying that the loans will go to support local lending institutions that primarily serve minority communities, which may be hesitant to seek out a loan from a bigger bank. She said that the lenders will not need to pay back "not even a dollar of this investment," and noting that the awards are grants, not loans.
"These banks predominantly do business in overlooked and underserved communities," she said. "They know these communities. They understand these communities. And in particular, most importantly, they know and see the capacity of these communities."
Harris said that the grants will support smaller institutions that were affected by COVID-19, including 70 community lenders in Puerto Rico. Other lenders who will receive the grants include Community First Fund in Pennsylvania, PACE Finance Corporation in California and BankPlus in Missouri.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement that the funds will help with the country's economic recovery.
"These grant funds will be transformative for grantees that are building a more equitable, resilient economy, along with helping sustain our strong economic recovery" Yellen said. "These critical resources will allow mission-driven lenders to expand access to capital in financially underserved communities, which will help increase contributions to long-term economic growth."
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Contrary to what liberals may believe, loans ain't free money. Increased lending creates a debt burden that is up to 15 times larger than than the grant. Using lenders as the means to distribute a little 'free money' will only create communities of debt slaves.
I suspect that a large amount of these funds will never get "loaned" out to the ultimate "grantee".
Looks like fraud and abuse could mess up the whole program.
The lenders are the grantees. Biden is giving money directly to banks. Banks can make more money off the skim than they would by absconding with the grants. These grants will balloon into a much, much larger debt burden for the communities.
That assumes most of the loans are repaid, which is unlikely.
We're not talking about people with good credit or good business plans. They've already got the SBA.
Loans are front loaded; the banks get their money first. Besides, a lot of banks sell the loans to be marketed to investors as derivatives.
It's not. It's all optics. It's a feeble attempt to make a shitty administration look good all at the taxpayers expense.
Absolutely.