Star Parker: We’re All on Welfare Now

I’m pleased to read that Republican leaders in the White House and on Capitol Hill want to take a pause before enacting more coronavirus stimulus spending.

Thinking about the coronavirus debt that my grandchildren will have to endure is already starting to keep me up at night.

But what really had me in cold sweats was when I found myself anxiously waiting for a Paycheck Protection Program loan, or PPP loan, to provide assistance to my struggling company.

I pondered, with deep angst, that after shedding myself of welfare dependency some 35 years ago, suddenly I find myself back in business with government.

Back when I was on means-tested welfare programs, the rules were “Don’t work. Don’t save. Don’t get married,” and my rich uncle in Washington would reach into someone else’s pocket and provide me security and stability on his government plantation.

Now politicians are setting up commissions and oversight to allegedly assure compliance with the rules for the trillions of coronavirus stimulus dollars allocated.

I say allegedly because, sadly, it is largely a show with a storyline that we tell ourselves, pretending that politicians can design trillions in spending programs that are targeted and efficient and can be overseen to assure that it’s all done right.

The PPP program consists of some $349 billion in loans that will go to millions of businesses around the country.

Each of these businesses is unique. What does my Washington, D.C., nonprofit have in common with a dry cleaner or a restaurant? What does my organization of 12 employees have in common with a business of 500, the largest that qualifies for PPP loans?

Yet, the rules for using the PPP loan are the same for everyone.

The loans can become grants if 75% of the funds are used for payroll and the business is staffed as it was before the crisis.

But the way we are going to get out of this crisis is creativity, doing things in new and different ways.

Many businesses, including my own, will not and should not be the same. There should be a lot of change and reinventing going on.

Yet the condition for the government money is that you run your business as government tells you how to run it, and that you continue to operate it as you did before — both very bad ideas.

Also consider that the PPP was one part of the $2 trillion CARES Act package. Another part included a $600 weekly payment to the unemployed, over and above unemployment insurance.

So while the PPP demands that employers restore their workforce, many in that workforce are now being subsidized by government to stay out of work.

Of course, we are in unique circumstances that require government action. But the issue is not whether government should act but how.

All this could have been done without vast new expenditures and government micromanagement of our lives.

COPYRIGHT 2020 STAR PARKER

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Photo credit: frankieleon (Creative Commons) – Some rights reserved

Star Parker is the founder and president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and author of the new book “Necessary Noise: How Donald Trump Inflames the Culture War and Why This is Good News for America,” available now at starparker.com

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