There's no excuse for coronavirus aid to small businesses running out

Congress should have known the loan program was woefully underfunded — but there's an easy fix

Small business money.
(Image credit: Illustrated | iStock)

Two weeks ago, Congress appropriated $350 billion to help small businesses stay whole as they weathered the coronavirus pandemic. But by Thursday morning, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) had already burned through every last cent. Only a tiny fraction of small businesses in the country have gotten any aid so far, and Congress is deadlocked over what to do next.

How the PPP came to this impasse involves a whole host of colliding factors: the Republican Party's nihilism; congressmembers' bad instincts when it comes to designing fiscal policy; their ignorance about monetary policy; and the raw health threat the coronavirus poses to any large gathering of people — including Congress itself.

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Jeff Spross

Jeff Spross was the economics and business correspondent at TheWeek.com. He was previously a reporter at ThinkProgress.