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Money given to any business should be a loan, zero interest, repayment schedule to be determined by each businesses return to profitability. Any business that was not in good financial condition at the end of 2019 is not eligible. No handouts.

Any business that was not in good financial condition at the end of 2019 is not eligible.

All businesses go thru periods of "not good financial condition". They should not have to die because a politician panics and shuts any chance of that business recovering. Loans sound great until you have to wait for months and file endless paperwork to be even eligible. Also, many people have jobs at businesses that aren't in the best financial position.

I’m a small business owner who — thankfully — doesn’t need a bailout even if I was eligible for one. But I would really like to use this “crisis” as an opportunity to fix some underlying flaws in our tax and employment laws that put me and my peers at an unfair disadvantage against larger competitors. Just two simple examples:

1. I cannot deduct the cost of medical insurance on my taxes. This is absurd on its face. Not only is health insurance fully deductible for companies who insure their employees, but this is also a TAX-FREE benefit for those employees as well. This makes no sense.

2. I am not eligible to collect unemployment. This one actually makes sense for obvious reasons: a business owner can’t lay himself off, and providing unemployment insurance for sole proprietors is a major incentive for them to game the system. But I would certainly recommend a corrective measure where small businesses are able to put aside a percentage of their pre-tax gross revenues in cash reserves that function like retirement accounts but can be tapped as needed during rough times like this.