https://thefederalist.com/2021/01/05/barstool-sports-raised-18-million-to-help-small-businesses-putting-big-governments-pathetic-relief-efforts-to-shame/
Barstool Sports founder and President Dave Portnoy has raised over $18 million for struggling small businesses that have continued paying employees despite financial devastation caused by crippling government lockdowns.
Nearly 80 businesses have already been supported by the Barstool Fund after Portnoy became fed up with unjust lockdowns and no relief. “I can’t believe in this country that what I consider the most basic right of them all, the right to earn a living, the right to earn a livelihood, is now being stolen,” Portnoy said. “And they’re saying that they protect us. Let us protect ourselves. You’re not protecting a family that you just destroyed.”
Many Americans have remarked that when it comes to COVID-19 relief, Barstool, with its private-sector fund, has been much more effective than Congress.
Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi waited months to pass a COVID-19 bill after the initial coronavirus relief benefits expired in July, even turning down a $1.8 trillion package offered by the Trump administration as a compromise. At the final hour, before the year ended, Congress finally passed a bill, but many Americans have been less than pleased to discover that millions of dollars that could have been allocated to struggling small businesses will actually be given to special interests that have nothing to do with the pandemic.
Some $25 million is going to Pakistan, $15 million to “democracy programs,” and another $10 million to unspecified “gender programs.” The Office of Diversity and Inclusion of the Appropriations Committee is receiving $1.5 million, and $200 million will be going toward new cars for foreign HIV/AIDS workers.
The Kennedy Center is receiving $40 million for operations, maintenance, and renovations — after having receiving $25 million in the first round of relief. Notably, several senators and representatives, including Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., are on the board of the performing arts center.
While we already know where some of the funds in the massive $900 billion stimulus package will go, we won’t really know who, how, or if American small businesses will actually receive meaningful assistance through the relief bill, paid for by American taxpayers.