This interview was filmed on April 20, 2020.
Dara Baldwin, Director of National Policy for the Center for Disability Rights addresses on the big money power that’s still being felt even in the Covid-19 quieted halls of Congress. If you thought the playing field had been leveled think again. The first CARES Act appropriated $350 billion for small business aid but that ran out in two weeks and not because the money went to small businesses.
Baldwin discusses what we the people need to learn from the 2008 big-bank bailout and how to show Congress you CARE about the CARES ACT — even if you’re not in the streets of Washington. Plus, why the multi-marginalized matter most in this moment.
The CARES Act does not care for everybody. Big businesses quickly gobbled up the money that Congress allotted for small business relief. Business owned by women, people of color and immigrants have been hit particularly hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, and yet they have received very little from the government’s relief package. The upshot is that those with the biggest advantages get the most aid, and those who are disadvantaged become disadvantaged even further. As the government prepares to replenish the fund to aid small businesses, will anything change, or will it be more of the same?
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