Michigan Senator Gary Peters (D-MI) weighed in on Congress’ passage of additional funding for the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), after President Trump signed the funding into law on Friday afternoon.
? SIGNED
— Senate Republicans (@SenateGOP) April 24, 2020
President @realdonaldtrump just signed Phase 3.5 of coronavirus relief legislation into law!
Here's what it includes:
+ $310B to refill the small business Paycheck Protection Program
+ $75B for hospitals
+ $25B for testing
More help is on the way. pic.twitter.com/s2BkQdZ9EM
To the workers and small businesses who need relief through the Paycheck Protection Program, President @realDonaldTrump is fighting for you.
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 24, 2020
Today, his signature will right the wrongs of politicians who once again put their needs before your own.
Sen. Peters joined his Democratic colleagues in pushing for unrelated line-items to be included in the eventual funding bill:
I pushed for more funding for small businesses, hospitals & testing. The bipartisan Senate-passed bill makes these important investments. But looking ahead, we must also support states & local communities & essential frontline workers.
— Senator Gary Peters (@SenGaryPeters) April 21, 2020
Read my statement??https://t.co/S3smObATsC
Sen. Peters came to the defense of the delay tactics used by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and his Democratic colleagues in the upper chamber. Democrats held up the additional funding for PPP for weeks, even after the program ran out of funds completely, in an attempt to leverage their ideological demands that had nothing to do with giving relief to small businesses. The Michigan Democrat even went as far to claim that the Democrat-led hold-up of the additional funding, proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), actually benefited small businesses, per an interview with a Detroit NPR affiliate:
“You need to have this money distributed equitably, to small business all across the country,” says Peters. And while there has been some delay in getting this legislation approved, Peters adds that in the long run, that will result in more money in the hands of Michigan’s small business owners. ”We fought for, and got, a carve-out of money to make sure those banks in our underserved areas have money to help those businesses in those areas.”
Sen. Peters’a comments are not only false, but such characterization of holding PPP funding hostage also does a disservice to America’s small business owners and employees. The small business sector suffered the most economic distress from COVID-19 and the shut down of the economy, and Senate Democrats exacerbated that distress by blocking Leader McConnell’s clean bill to legislate $250 billion in additional funding to PPP for nearly two weeks.
Peters suggests small businesses and small banks were unable to participate. @GaryPeters is lying.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 24, 2020
??60% of loans were processed by banks with less than $10B in assets.
??Average loan size was $206K
??Nearly 90% of loans were 350K
??Less than 2% of loans were greater than $2M
Michigan has had one of the worst spikes in jobless claims in the country.
— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 24, 2020
But you're a small business employee who lost your job in the last week, have no fear. Senator @GaryPeters says its actually *better* this way.
Yikes.https://t.co/CC0UKRBqTi
Sen. Peters is facing a tough re-election, with Republican John James rising in polls and fundraising, while Sen. Peters’s vulnerable race is bolstered by Sen. Schumer’s fundraising machine. Rather than rise above the partisan political games played by Senate Democrats, at the expense of America’s small business sector, Sen. Peters continues to be a rubber stamp for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, as he fights to keep his seat in the upper chamber.
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