As calls for another round of COVID-19 aid strengthen, a new report has found that big businesses received over half of the first round of coronavirus "small business" relief.
According to newly release documents, more than half of the money from the Treasury Department's coronavirus emergency fund for small businesses went to just 5% of the recipients:
Officials from the Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration have argued that the program primarily benefited smaller business because a vast majority of the loans ― more than 87% ― were for less than $150,000, as of August. But the new data show that more than half of the $522 billion in the same time frame had gone to bigger businesses, and only 28% of the money was distributed in amounts of under $150,000.
If we're looking to the federal government to save us from the pandemic, we're going to be disappointed. The federal government is like a hammer -- it's good at hammering nails, but not much else. If we want solutions to complex, nationwide problems, we should look to We the People first.
Unfortunately, the federal government has grown so large and so powerful that national politicians believe they can fix our every problem, so they pass massive aid bills that they can't possibly administer responsibly. They help some Americans, but they're plagued with corruption, abuse, and mismanagement.
We should be doing everything we can to take power away from the federal government and return it to the people and the states. Some of that reform can happen in Washington, but most must come from outside the beltway -- and a Convention of States is our most powerful tool.
An Article V Convention of States is called and controlled by the states and has the power to propose constitutional amendments. These amendments can clarify the small, limited role of the federal government, and return all other power to the people and the states. State programs will still deal with fraud and abuse, but We the People are in a much stronger position to hold our state and local officials in check.
No federal politician or official will be held accountable for mismanagement the COVID-19 aid fund. But we can hold the federal government accountable for their decades of overreach and abuse, and we can do it with a Convention of States.
