Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
Is anyone else alarmed that the disclosure of the recipients of more than $500 billion in bailout money delivered to businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is such a big secret?. Questions directed to the Treasury Department were answered by saying that information was “proprietary” and “confidential”.
Why? That amount of our taxpayer funds is not insignificant. Heck, the entire budget of the Defense Department is $617 billion! Would we accept that what was being spent by the DOD is a big secret?
I don’t think so. Why?
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The "why" has already been reported:
"On Thursday, a Treasury spokesman said
Mnuchin’s position reflected concern that publishing “loan-level” data with borrowers’ identities would risk disclosing proprietary information about millions of small businesses, and the salaries of sole proprietors and independent contractors. That’s because PPP loan amounts are calculated using the applicants’ payrolls."
Now, will the court(s) agree with this privacy assertion, or will they allow the release of the recipients information? Well, that's what courts are for.