Citizen Journo Documents Welfare Hypocrisy
Public documents reveal that Republican State Senator Paul Bettencourt - who has led the attack on Harris County’s new anti-poverty program as an illegal “handout” - had himself over $624,000 in PPP loans forgiven by the Federal Government.
posted the receipts, along with further reading documenting the success of guaranteed income program elsewhere.
Zoom out: Bettencourt isn’t the only prominent local republican who wants to have his cake and eat it too when it comes to economic stimulus programs.
Matt Brice, owner of Federal American Grill, famously refused county lock-down orders during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, receiving national press attention in the process. He called the closure a case of the government picking “winners and losers” and then took more than $300,000 of dollars in forgiven government handouts himself.
Conservative rabble-rouser Wayne Dolecfino had almost $100,000 in PPP loans forgiven by the government:
Why it matters: Local media shouldn’t take arguments made by local conservatives aimed at government subsidies at face value without looking deeper into their own histories.