In her book, former SBA Administrator Karen Mills includes a screenshot from John Oliver’s Last Week Tonight show. In it, politicians of every stripe are calling small business the “backbone” of the U.S. economy.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, that backbone has been severely tested and has even cracked under the pressure. The latest Census Bureau survey data show that three-quarters of small businesses still report “large” or “moderate” negative effects from the Coronavirus pandemic.
In the early stages of the crisis, Washington demonstrated admirable bipartisan cooperation in creating new forms of emergency relief such as the Paycheck Protection Program. Even though Congress has hit a stalemate in passing another round of general support, legislators have shown impressive creativity in their latest proposals to further support small businesses and entrepreneurs. None has been enacted, of course, but political agreement on strengthening the “backbone” remains strong.
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