by Luis Miguel, The New American:

Despite liberals bashing the Paycheck Protection Program as a handout for the rich, at least 18 progressive groups with ties to billionaire George Soros applied for and were green-lighted for federal loans meant to help small business owners amid the COVID-19 crisis, receiving up to $20 million total in taxpayer dollars.

Groups affiliated with the Democracy Alliance, a network of donors Soros co-founded, was one recipient of funds from the Paycheck Protection Program. The groups collectively received between $8.5 million and $20.7 million.

The Democracy Alliance has increased its spending in recent days ahead of the presidential election in November. According to its website, Democracy Alliance was created in 2013 to keep supporters of Barack Obama engaged, using its network, technology, and volunteers to support issues like “gun violence, women’s health, comprehensive immigration reform, middle class job creation, climate change, marriage equality, and other legislative priorities at the state level.”

Members of the alliance personally pledge to donate a minimum of $200,000 a year to organizations the club recommends. Its activities remain hidden, though some known members of the invite-only group are Soros and his son, Jonathan, billionaires Tom Steyer and Donald Sussman, and real estate investor Patricia Bauman

Democracy Alliance has a $275 million spending plan for the 2020 elections. As the Free Beacon notes:

The donor club has backed more than 150 liberal organizations, including the Center for American Progress, Media Matters for America, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). In recent years, the group took in smaller and lesser-known anti-Trump “resistance” groups such as the Center for Popular Democracy, Center for Community Change, and Swing Left.

While the alliance has heavily focused on funding liberal organizations for much of its existence—and still continues to do so—the group will now “redouble” its focus on state-based actions to expand progressive power for 2020.

A majority of the money will be spent on defeating Donald Trump’s reelection. Democracy Alliance partners have poured $1.83 billion into the Left since its founding.

“The political groups that form the infrastructure of the far left rely on contributions from the country’s richest millionaires and billionaires,” a GOP operative told the Free Beacon. “Now, those same groups are leaning on PPP loans while slamming the program as a handout to the rich. This shameless hypocrisy exemplifies how hollow and disingenuous their rhetoric is.”

One of the most well-known Democracy Alliance groups to receive government cash was Media Matters for America, a liberal watchdog started by Hillary Clinton ally David Brock. The organization got between $1 and $2 million in PPP loans, despite the fact that on its most recent tax forms, it  took in nearly $15 million in contributions.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a watchdog group that has filed several lawsuits against the Trump administration. The federal government gave them between $350,000 and $1 million in federal aid. While CREW does not reveal the names of its individual funders, it has received millions from two of Soros’ nonprofits — the Foundation to Promote Open Society and the Open Society Policy Center.

Several of the Soros-aligned groups to accept PPP loans have been instrumental in major anti-Trump campaigns.

The Center for Popular Democracy got between $1 million and $2 million in loans while leading an $80 million anti-Trump network.

Demos, a think tank formerly chaired by Senator Elizabeth Warren’s (D-Mass.) daughter, Amelia Warren Tyagi, was the recipient of between $350,000 and $1 million in loans.

The National Immigration Law Center, which openly opposes the president’s “anti-immigrant agenda,” was awarded between $1 and $2 million taxpayer funds.’

Another group to receive PPP loans was CLASP, a nonprofit that recently entered into a partnership with the National Immigration Law Center. It got between $350,000 and $1 million in loans.

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