The Stimulus Is Playing Hard to Get

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Small business owners face burdens similar to the unemployed, including broken websites, confusing instructions and the sense that the government doesn't really want to help. The recently created Paycheck Protection Program promises $349 billion in relief, but requires business owners to provide documentation of payroll, mortgage interest and rent payments, as well as utility costs for the eight-week period following the loan. Additional complexity comes from private banks administering the loans. Concerned about being responsible for verifying eligibility, many banks are just helping existing small business customers rather than new clients. Only businesses with the connections and capacity to manage the paperwork stand to receive the limited funds.

It doesn't have to be this way. Many European governments simply guaranteed payroll for employers so that businesses would stay afloat and workers would keep their jobs. The United States could still do the same thing. For example, Representative Pramila Jayapal, Democrat of Washington State has proposed that the Treasury Department use previous tax return data to estimate three months of employer wage costs, and provide that money in the form of a grant to businesses that would continue to pay their workers.