Bosses winning

As Congress moves to shore up the already drained funds for SBA's Paycheck Protection Program loans, *some* Democrats have tried asking if they could also maybe do something to prop up the state and local governments whose budgets have been cratered by the crisis and shut down.  But, guess what.

Democrats have been pushing to boost funding to cash-strapped states and local governments whose revenues have cratered. They had proposed $150 billion for the effort, but GOP leaders stood hard in opposition, at least regarding the current package of COVID-19 aid.

Guess your school and streets and sewers and buses aren't as high a priority as these large publicly traded companies who have been looting the "small business" aid.   Or, you know, coal. Coal is very important right now.

A coal company based in Indiana received $10 million from a federal loan program intended to rescue faltering small businesses from the economic ravages of the coronavirus pandemic.

But Hallador Energy has several hundred more employees than the standard firm awarded money under the $2 trillion stimulus bill. And it has at least two important ties to the Trump administration: Scott Pruitt, the former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, was hired last year to lobby for it; and the company’s former government relations director now works at the Energy Department.