Voters Don't Think The Paycheck Protection Program Is Fair

The chart above is from the Politico / Morning Consult Poll. It was done on May 2nd and 3rd of a national sample of 1,987 registered voters, with a 2 point margin of error.

The Paycheck Protection Program was part of the massive bill from Congress that created over $2 trillion to help the economy a few weeks ago. It was designed to help small businesses survive the recession. They could apply for loans to pay employees and pay rent and other bills while they were closed. If a business kept most of their employees on the payroll, they would not have to repay the loan.

It was a good idea. Unfortunately, it did not work as intended. It turns out that a lot of publicly-held corporations applied for (and got) the loans. The money was not intended for them. A separate program of $500 billion was created for them. But those companies got over a billion dollars out of the PPP program, and left many small businesses out in the cold.

When exposed, a few of those corporations gave the money back, but most did not. Congress had to go back and put more money in the PPP program for real small businesses.

Was the program administered fairly? A plurality of registered voters say NO. About 44% (including 50% of Democrats, 45% of Independents, and 36% of Republicans) say the program was not fair, while only 20% said it was.

They are right. Congress did not adequately define the small businesses who could get loans from the program, and the Trump administration used that to pass out money to businesses supporting Trump. It was another example of crony capitalism.