Letter to the Editor: Next COVID-19 relief bill needs to help small businesses

(Letter to the Editor by David O. Smith of Corbin)

It’s clear the first COVID relief bill passed by Congress basically went to big business, except for the $600 benefits to individuals receiving unemployment in an attempt to equalize funds received in each state. Hopefully, the second bill will go to small businesses, not those with $100 million cash reserves.

The next big news comes from US Senator Mitch McConnell. He has taken care of big business and proclaimed to help the citizens of Kentucky, so he is finished helping Kentuckians. He says no more relief packages. Let the States bankrupt.

That is really stupid. First, there is no provision in the US Bankruptcy Code for a state to file bankruptcy, and it is likely unconstitutional. But what does the McConnell bankruptcy mean, besides following the Trump formula for success in business? Depending on the bankruptcy legislation that McConnell would shepherd through the Senate, the US Bankruptcy Judge, as the Bankruptcy Court can now do in municipal bankruptcies, could halt unemployment benefits, raise the tax rate in the Commonwealth, eliminate or reduce pensions to pay debts, sell real estate and personal property owned by the Commonwealth like state parks, turn highways into toll roads, eliminate state employees, eliminate or reduce state leases.

McConnell has had a huge relief package passed to benefit big business and giant corporations. Now he’s done, because he does not have empathy or care about the every day citizens of Kentucky.