Port: Stop giving people money and start protecting their jobs

MINOT, N.D. — I'm sick of the coronavirus.

Not literally sick. My health is fine.

What I have is a pronounced weariness when it comes to writing and talking about the COVID-19 outbreak and what it's doing to our world.

Still, we have to talk about it, because it's happening, and we have to make decisions to protect ourselves.

The various levels of our government are responding. Most of the immediate focus has been on measures aimed at keeping people healthy, and that's as it should be. Meanwhile, we've seen the first steps toward an economic response.

At the national level, the federal government has passed response legislation, which was headlined by large relief checks to be sent out to most Americans. Congress and the Trump administration have also expanded some of the government safety net programs.

Notably, unemployment benefits will be more generous for a while.

What we need, though, is more focus on keeping people in their jobs.

As my friend Tim Carney writes at the Washington Examiner, we need a national program to backstop business payrolls.

Nationally, in the last two measured weeks, nearly 10 million Americans have filed for unemployment .

Here in North Dakota, an average business day brings 80 unemployment filings or about 400 per week, but for the week of March 21, that number skyrocketed to nearly 6,000 (see the graphic below).

As Carney notes, the best way to help those people is not to give them money, or more generous unemployment payments.

The best way to help them is to keep them in their jobs.

The best way to keep them in their jobs, in this extreme moment, is to have our government backstop payrolls.

The federal government could do this, of course, but North Dakota's government has resources available as well. The Legacy Fund, among other state reserves, could be used to make grants or friendly-termed loans to businesses so that they can avoid laying off their workers.

Those workers could continue receiving their health and other benefits. They'd have money for necessities like food and clothing.

They could continue paying their bills, like rent and utilities, which in turn helps those businesses as well.

When this is all over, and social distancing becomes nothing more than an ugly memory, these people who might otherwise have been laid off could hopefully return to work and business as usual.

If we want to stop the economic freefall we're currently in, keeping people in their current jobs is where we need to focus.

The federal government has started down this path — sort of.

Part of the relief legislation they've passed is called the Paycheck Protection Act. The American Enterprise Institute has a good summary of how it will work .

The problem is, it doesn't go far enough.

There was a lot of focus put on the one-time checks Americans will be receiving from the government, but that money could probably have been better spent on loans and grants to businesses so they could maintain their payrolls.

After all, what would you rather have? A one-time check, or your job?

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Rob Port, founder of SayAnythingBlog.com, is a Forum Communications commentator. Reach him on Twitter at @robport or via email at rport@forumcomm.com .