The federal government’s chaotic response to the coronavirus delivered an economic challenge the likes of which the nation has not seen since the Great Depression.
No longer is there a question of whether there will be another massive coronavirus-related federal rescue package. The question is how much.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell predicts the economy will contract by an “unprecedented rate in the second quarter.” About 30 million Americans have filed jobless claims during the past six weeks.
A $2.2 trillion package and subsequent legislation to help distressed workers and small businesses have fallen short of those goals. Too many dollars got caught in a logjam or ended up in the hands of businesses that technically qualified for relief under the legislation, but were not the small mom-and-pop stores the program would help.
Before Congress appropriates another dollar for small-business relief it must correct those mistakes.
Step one is to shutter the loopholes that allowed publicly traded companies to vacuum up large amounts of the relief funds, and then more efficiently target small neighborhood business and proprietorships that have fallen through the cracks. One possible solution is to funnel more money to community-based lenders and midsized banks and other local lenders have existing relationships with small businesses and are better attuned to the individual needs.
Step two is to make sure that states have the dollars and facilities to conduct far more extensive coronavirus testing. Despite some bumps, state governments have more effectively devised, supported and implemented procedures to keep the public safe while gradually reopening portions of the economy. The success or failure of state efforts to ease stay-at-home restrictions depends on whether the states are able to test more people and analyze the results quickly.
Step three is to make sure the nation’s food supply is secure. We’ve seen farmers destroying crops that are no longer profitable, long lines at food banks and illness-related shutdowns of meatpacking plants. New strategies are needed to address weaknesses in the nation’s food supply chain. Along these lines, the federal government also must continue to fund the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and increase flexibility for those in need to access food benefits.
Step four is for the federal government to have serious talks about whether new laws are needed to mitigate coronavirus-related lawsuits as businesses attempt to reopen. Hundreds of lawsuits are already in state and federal courts against corporations, insurance companies and governments for their actions during the pandemic.
Finally, the nation must be more honest about the economic toll fighting the coronavirus will have on future generations. Together, the Federal Reserve and Congress have tossed about $9 trillion into the fight without an end in sight. And these numbers don’t take into account the dollars state and local governments are spending.
That’s a huge amount of money with a predictable outcome — a financial anvil on future generations. Much of the spending is necessary, but it’s also incumbent on Congress to be prudent as it advances.
A dollar spent today is one that will have to be paid back by future taxpayers, so while it’s important to deal with the crisis before us, it’s also important not to create a future crisis for the country.
— The Dallas Morning News
