Chuck Schumer (D-Lying Weasel) and his band of cronies are at it again, holding up legislation to help small businesses that were ordered shuttered to continue paying their employees because they want more money for the government. The New York Post reports:
Senate Democrats on Thursday blocked legislation to add $250 billion to a small-business loan program designed to prevent layoffs during the coronavirus outbreak.
The move means that Congress won’t pass an expansion of the Paycheck Protection Program, which is running out of money, until next week at the earliest.
The bill would have given companies with up to 500 employees loans to cover payroll expenses and overhead. If the companies can keep their employees on the payroll they will not have to pay back the loans. America is facing record unemployment with claims totaling ten million at last count.
The Democrats wanted to stick their usual pork inside this bill, demanding $100 billion for hospitals and $150 billion for “state and local governments.” The question is, for what? What exactly do states and local governments need right now? They’re already entitled to all the funds they get when under a national emergency and state emergency. The money our states are blowing through right now is incalculable. And it seems like the federal government is bending over backward to get the hospitals everything they need, including ventilators that appear to be unnecessary now because even Governor Cuomo admits no one is asking for any of the thousands in the stockpile. So what do the hospitals need exactly that costs $100 billion? We’ve got GM and 3M cranking out personal protection equipment under federal orders and emergency funds are being released for these expenses. I can’t imagine what they need another $100 billion for.
Rest assured that when Democrats claim to need more money in these bills to help you, the little guy, they are lying. The last “relief” bill that went through gave billions to museums and the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, refugees, and Congress itself while offering Americans $1,200 checks they can’t get until August at the earliest. It’s worth noting that if the IRS said you owed them $1,200, they would have it out of your bank account in under ten minutes. Any protestations the government makes about being “unable” to provide relief to the public until months from now is a damn lie.
I’m sure they’ll get away with it. They always do. Small businesses that have now gone four weeks without income are expected to keep their payroll going on their own. Sally Kohn says there’s no reason why they can’t. This is like running over a guy with your car and breaking his spine and then berating him for not being able to walk.
I'm really tired of reading how business owners are "forced" to layoff workers. No one made them do that. They *chose* to do that. Not saying it isn't a hard choice, during a hard time, but to say they were *forced* obscures their agency AND casts owners/CEOs as the victims.
— Sally Kohn (@sallykohn) April 9, 2020
I’m not a fan of these big relief bills trying to manage the economy through legislation. The answer is simple. Re-open the economy, take the handcuffs off and let the businesses get back to work so they can pay their employees on their own—and do it now. The models are likely wrong, the estimates of deaths probably way off, and we were made to shut down our economy on what may have been faulty information. Apologize and let us move on. That’s the only way forward now. Stop the madness.
Megan Fox is the author of “Believe Evidence; The Death of Due Process from Salome to #MeToo,” and host of The Fringe podcast. Follow on Twitter @MeganFoxWriter
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