Rep. Max Rose (D-NY) seems to be one of those lawmakers who rolls with the tide of political expediency. With that said, he did hit the nail on the head by criticizing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for her stonewalling of Congress's coronavirus relief efforts in order to get her liberal agenda enacted.
The Payment Protection Program, set up to relieve small businesses that have suffered during the coronavirus pandemic and economic shutdown, ran out of money on Thursday. Congress could have added another $250 billion to the program last week but Democrats blocked the vote.
Rep. Rose, who represents Staten Island, shared the following message with Pelosi and other Democratic leaders.
The Paycheck Protection Program needs to be replenished, and done so quickly. Let’s protect our small businesses, hospitals and make sure local governments don’t have to lay-off first responders.
— Rep. Max Rose (@RepMaxRose) April 16, 2020
Only in DC would be this be difficult. Let’s get this done.https://t.co/xeg6HjMqJ8
"If you think for a second you think this is an opportunity to insert some random tenets of the Green New Deal, some random things that support the Kennedy center or anything else that the far left calls for, that is not the time, I'll be the first to come back on and say no this is not the time to do this," he said.
Sounds like he was stealing lines from Republicans like Sen. John Thune (R-SD) or GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy. On Friday Thune accused Democrats of trying to "hijack the process" to enact some "unrelated agenda items." And for days McCarthy has been trying to fathom why Pelosi can't see eye-to-eye with them on this emergency issue.
I hesitate to give Rep. Rose a pat on the back. After all, he was following the lead of Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-NY) and Tina Smith (D-MN), two of the first Democrats to break ranks with party leadership.
The PPP program is going to run out of funding soon - the Senate should approve add’l funding by unanimous consent ASAP. Small businesses need our help to survive during this emergency. https://t.co/kYTbjGHCXM
— Kyrsten Sinema (@kyrstensinema) April 16, 2020
I agree with Democrats, Marco Rubio and the U.S. Chamber—we should fix the small business program so it works better. And we should help hospitals and support state and local services like firefighters and police—immediately. https://t.co/2jzSKhxKId
— Senator Tina Smith (@SenTinaSmith) April 16, 2020
I also temper my praise for Rep. Rose because this is the guy who flip flops like it's his vocation. He was against impeaching President Trump, until he wasn't.
But we'll give him a pass for now. Let's come together to help our small businesses.
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