PPP Not Enough to Save Many Mom-and-Pop Businesses

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New reporting today in the Wall Street Journal highlights a harsh reality: for many mom-and-pop businesses, Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds were simply not enough to keep them afloat through the ongoing Trump Recession.

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Supporting Mom-and-Pop Businesses

“The CARES Act was intended to be a first step — not the only step — to support Americans and their small businesses during the pandemic,” said Kyle Herrig, president of government watchdog Accountable.US. “But the Trump administration has thrown in the towel on both curbing the spread of COVID-19 and securing additional aid for mom-and-pop shops, workers, and their families. Americans are suffering, and the situation is only going to get worse so long as Trump continues putting his own interests ahead of the public’s.”

The PPP was deeply flawed in its design and implementation, allowing wealthy publicly traded corporations and fraudsters alike to cash in while many small businesses were boxed out of aid entirely — especially those in communities of color.

But as COVID-19 cases surge and small businesses nationwide continue to shutter, it is clear that not even enterprises lucky enough to obtain PPP funds are protected from the threat of permanent closure. And as a cold winter approaches, the trend may well get even worse.

See the full report below.

The Wall Street Journal: Hundreds of Companies That Got Stimulus Aid Have Failed

Recipients of PPP loans have filed for bankruptcy after the money ran out 

By Shane Shifflett, November 17, 2020

About 300 companies that received as much as half a billion dollars in pandemic-related government loans have filed for bankruptcy, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of government data and court filings.

Many of the companies, which employ a total of about 23,400 workers, say the funds from the Paycheck Protection Program weren’t enough to keep them going as the coronavirus and lack of additional stimulus payments weighed on their businesses.

Read more here from the The Wall Street Journal.