There is a time for every purpose under heaven. There’s a time to save, a time to cut taxes, a time to play. Governors, mayors, and probably our president-elect believe it’s time to shut down or curtail businesses, and so it is not time for Congress to worry about the deficit or the debt. Instead, it is time to spend big, in order to save main streets and the businesses on them.
A new wave of coronavirus infections, hospitalizations, and deaths is hitting many parts of the United States right now. Hospitalizations have hit a record high. New cases are rising across the country, and not because of more testing — positivity rates are rising too. Covid deaths have been steadily climbing for a week now. It looks ugly and looks like it will get worse.
Whether or not you agree, our governments do. Governors of both parties are imposing stricter limits on all gatherings, ordering earlier closings, and restricting travel. A top Joe Biden adviser is calling for month-plus lockdowns.
This is bad news for all of us, but it’s specifically bad news for small business owners. I’m thinking especially of bars and restaurants.
Even if bars and restaurants are allowed to stay open, they will often be limited to 25% capacity, briefer hours, or outdoor-only dining, which in the winter won’t be that appealing. Even where bars are allowed to remain open, customers will be more reluctant to attend.
In short, many bars and restaurants will close down along with other retail businesses and service businesses. I focus on bars and restaurants in part because there’s a good case for closing them or restricting while leaving open other businesses.
Your book store requires a mask, and you leave it on for the whole 10-20 minutes you’re in there. Same with your hardware store.
When you go to a bar or a restaurant, though, your mask is off most of the time you’re there, which is anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. At bars, people like to mingle, especially after they’ve been drinking for a while. Contact tracing efforts in Maryland, where I live, indicate that such mingling, maskless, is a major source of transmission.
So if we want to slow the spread, we need to curtail or close restaurants. But if we do that, we risk destroying local businesses by the thousands. Already thousands of local bars and restaurants have closed. Downtown joints have been hit hardest since people aren’t going into the office.
Congress can prevent this by simply paying the bars and restaurants to stay closed. Congress can cover rent, payroll, taxes, utilities, and all operating costs. Maybe also pay for new air filtration systems and infrastructure to allow outdoor dining in the spring.
Pass a standalone bill, the “Save Dives, Save Lives Bill,” to borrow a phrase from Arthur Delaney and Lindsay Holmes. How much will it cost? A lot, probably. But the alternative is condemning these establishments to bankruptcy and ruining main streets, which in turn ruins communities. Sure, one day those restaurants might reopen as a Chili’s, but locally owned businesses tend to be better for forming community and spreading the wealth.
Congress shouldn’t try to “pay for” this bar bailout with a tax hike or a spending cut. Just spend the money. There is a time to reduce the deficit and a time to use the deficit — particularly when borrowing costs are so low.
If you’re worried we can’t “afford” this, I think you have a mistaken idea of government finance. What we can’t afford is the failure of tens of thousands more bars and restaurants.
