Key Vote Alert – “NO” ON PAYCHECK PROTECTION PROGRAM AND HEALTH CARE ENHANCEMENT ACT

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Club for Growth opposes the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act. The legislation will be considered soon in the United States House of Representatives. The result of the vote will be included in the Club for Growth Foundation’s 2020 Congressional Scorecard.

The Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act adds nearly $500 billion to the deficit, which is rapidly approaching $5,000,000,000,000 for FY2020. Instead of continuing to add hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars more to the deficit, Congress should direct Treasury to redirect funds appropriated in phases 3 to fund the Paycheck Protection Program. By offsetting from other lower priority measures included in the CARES Act the cost to taxpayer will remain over $2 trillion. Congress is fervently working to get liquidity to distressed business in America following the Coronavirus pandemic. But many recipients are not distressed and are taking advantage of the program.

This bill fails to include key provisions that will promote economic growth once the economy is reopened.  First, any economic stimulus bill should begin with cutting red tape and decreasing the cost of regulations on employers. Congress must also correct the gross injustice in the CARES unemployment insurance provision that pays non-working, unemployed American more than employed workers. The CARES Act provision is creating resentment in the workplace and will make it impossible for many small businesses to reopen. This perverse incentive must be fixed.

Club for Growth Foundation’s Congressional Scorecard for the 116th Congress provides a comprehensive rating of how well or how poorly each member of Congress supports pro-growth, free-market policies and will be distributed to the public.