The loans aren’t supposed to be need-based charity. They’re an economic measure intended to preserve the status quo during the shut down—to keep the economy’s web of obligations from unraveling. If you saw your revenue fall, you were supposed to get a loan so you didn’t fall behind on your payroll, etc.

American Airlines got the loans and should have gotten the loans. Airlines are low-margin businesses. Last year, AA had $45.8 billion in revenues and $42.7 billion in expenses. Airlines are always living in the edge of a small shift in one of those numbers pushing them into the red. During the first quarter of this year it had $8.5 billion in revenue and $11.8 billion in expenses—almost completely wiping out all of last’s year’s profits. And that was just through March! If AA didn’t get the loans, it would have to lay everyone off, suppliers would stop getting paid, etc., and that would trigger exactly the unwinding of the economy that would make recovery protracted and painful.