//The PPP worked how it was supposed to. That’s the problem.

The PPP worked how it was supposed to. That’s the problem.

Matt “Kush” Kusher stands outside his restaurant KUSH in Miami, on April 29. Kusher and other restaurant owners are struggling after being denied funds from the first Paycheck Protection Program, and need help from a second rollout to keep their businesses open. | Charles Trainor Jr./Miami Herald/Tribune News Service/Getty Images

America’s plan to save small business in the pandemic was flawed from the start.

Months after Congress created the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) in an attempt to support small businesses during the Covid-19 pandemic, people are still confused, and even angry, over the ambitious, unprecedented experiment.

Take what happened with Mark Fisher Fitness (MFF), an LGBTQ-friendly boutique fitness studio based in New York. Because it got a PPP loan in April, it was able to rehire the 28 employees it laid off in March as the coronavirus crisis set in and its locations