Was virus aid money 'corporate welfare?'

The Small Business Administration, through the Paycheck Protection Program, recently granted loans to "small businesses" in Boundary County amounting to millions of dollars here locally. The amount and conditions of these loans were set by the Trump Administration. Under certain conditions, these loans do not have to be paid back by the beneficiary. The loans were granted as the result of financial hardship created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Idaho Statesman just published an article that reveals which businesses and organizations received grants from the PPP fund. The list is split into two categories: Those receiving up to $150,000; and those receiving more than $150,000. Initially, the SBA did not release the amount received by each business in the first category. It took a lawsuit filed in federal court to get the SBA to release this information. The SBA disclosed only a "range" of funds for those businesses in the second category. A google search of "PPP Idaho Statesman" will reveal what I am referencing here. It does take a considerable amount of searching to identify every business who received PPP funds here in Boundary County.

It is my view that the manner in which these funds were granted ended up as another top-down one-size-fits-all program. Not every business is equally effected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The top two recipients of PPP funding in Boundary County are businesses which I suspect were minimally effected in direct comparison to small retail, food and medical services. I do not criticize our local businesses for applying, but the Trump Administration promised to deliver us from big-government solutions. I encourage you to review who the recipients are and how much they individually received.

I find it ironic that some of the biggest local complainers about government giveaways are on this list. After all, they had to apply. I only wish they had the same level of compassion for their near-to-minimum wage employees who received $1,200 from the federal stimulus package in the face of expiring unemployment benefits. As far as the Trump Administration is concerned, the joke about "lyin' and lion" applies. If you want to hear the joke, I'll share it over a beer.

GERALD B. HIGGS

Bonners Ferry