It would appear in this time of crisis, we are on our own. Government will not help us. The best attempts by lawmakers, elected officials and administrators are beset by ego, ineptitude, bureaucracy, politicking, partisanship and that greed.
At the end of March, Congress passed the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief & Economic Security Act — or CARES Act. Cute title.
On April 1, I wrote that this was a deeply flawed bill, and that lawmakers knew it, but it would be the best we’re going to get in the interim until lawmakers figured out better strategies.
Flawed does not even take the cake. Checks to taxpayers are being distributed, although many have not received one. The IRS website, set up to track where the payments are, often states that the IRS can’t determine if eligible taxpayers are eligible or if the refunds can be found, with no further information as to where they might be, or when they might be sent out.
The IRS will hunt people down to collect money but when it’s directed to release money, surprise, it can’t be found.
The Paycheck Protection Program, initially a series of loans to small businesses, was to be distributed to banks and then businesses. These banks, as is now alleged in a class action lawsuit, instead of offering loans to any and every business that needed them only offered them to existing customers.
It makes sense in that these existing customers had already gone through background checks on their finances to be established bank customers, but Congress apparently didn’t clarify that in the bill’s actual language, and only rectified it recently. The fix is moot as the fund is already drained.
Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of small business owners went to file only to be told they were ineligible by the banks’ rules and effectively unable to apply. Of the 29 million small businesses in the United States, roughly 1.1 million were able to get loans — 3.79%.
On the other side of the loan program, four major banks — Bank of America, JPMorgan, US Bank and Wells Fargo — allegedly decided that rather than offering the accounts on a first-come, first-serve basis that they would prioritize major companies because those companies will pay more in fees for large loans, thus increasing the revenue earned by the bank.
American capitalism is nothing if not consistent, even in a time of national crisis.
The PPP was supposed to target businesses with fewer than 500 employees — it was really targeted at small retail stores and single-building mom and pop operations — but many businesses with well over that got loans and skirted the system because those employees numbered fewer than 500 in a single store or facility.
The unemployment insurance system is now providing direct financial assistance to 22 million Americans. It was barely set up to handle a fifth of that and certainly not all of them filing at once.
Users report delays in filing and getting their unemployment checks. State coffers in many states are already stretched thin. Even though the federal government offered up to $600 per person, as a backup for insurance, much of that money has not yet been distributed.
Arizonans are asked to send back their forms by fax to apparently a single fax machine that is always busy. According to Arizona officials, our unemployed workers will not see that $600 on checks until sometime this week although thankfully, they will be retroactive.
Nationally, the president declared dictatorial powers to open the economy of states as he sees fit, only to immediately backtrack when someone explained federalism, and then rolled out a back-to-work plan giving governors guidelines, then calling on Americans to “liberate” certain states from some of the aforementioned governors.
Governors themselves seem both unwilling to open economies lest they get negative publicity and equally unwilling to provide enough funding or resources so their states’ workers can eat and states’ businesses can avoid bankruptcy while fighting each other for medical equipment the federal government won’t distribute effectively.
We are on our own as it appears governments have given up the business of governing.
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
