Welfare / socialism for the very rich.
Asher Price
Austin American-Statesman
Dec. 28, 2020
A Texas fracking company owned by billionaire Republican donors got a $35 million government pandemic relief loan this spring, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
ProFrac Holdings, owned by Dan and Farris Wilks, applied for and received the loan even as it was going on a West Texas buying spree, scooping up oil and gas companies.
Key to the loan application: U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, whose campaigns have been a major benefactor of the Wilks' largesse, and who helped convince the Trump administration and the Federal Reserve to change the rules for pandemic loans to ensure oil and gas firms could participate, the Journal reported.
The Wilks brothers donated $15 million to a super PAC called Keeping the Promise that championed Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign, making them the largest financial backers of his political career, according to the Journal.
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The Wilks brothers, who made their fortune in the fracking boom by selling their oilfield service company, Frac Tech, for $3.5 billion in 2011, have long been active in Republican politics.
They have been major contributors to the campaigns of Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, and a host of Texas House members who make up the "Freedom" Caucus.
On the federal level, in addition to the contributions to the super PAC supporting Cruz, Farris Wilks contributed to the political campaign of U.S. Rep. Chip Roy, a Republican who represents parts of Austin and the Hill Country, and $200,000 to the Club for Growth, which supports conservative candidates. Dan Wilks contributed $35,000 in 2019 to the Republican National Committee.
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