McConnell, McCarthy Blast Democrats For Blocking Funds To Help Small Businesses
news comes as the US reported nearly 630,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19
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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and other Democrats for blocking a Paycheck Protection Program of the CARES Act.
The paycheck protection program ran out of cash and will no longer issue funds to help small businesses who face ruin in the face of the coronavirus crisis.
According to McConnell and McCarthy's statement:
“The Small Business Administration and the Department of the Treasury report that the Paycheck Protection Program will exhaust its funding in a matter of hours."
“It will have to stop accepting applications for job-saving loans. Democrats have spent days blocking emergency funding for Americans’ paychecks, and now the bipartisan program has run dry.”
The $350 billion programs have halted applications from struggling businesses.
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Last week, McConnell proposed an interim relief measure that would allocate an additional $250 billion to the protection program (PPP) to save small businesses.
But Democrats blocked the measure last week.
Dems also demanded an additional $250 billion in funds for other "priorities."
Jobless numbers revealed a total of 16.8 million Americans have filed for unemployment benefits.
McConnell pleaded with Democrats to pass a measure that would change the funding for the program from $350 billion to $600 billion total in a "clean" emergency measure.
The news comes as the US reported nearly 630,000 confirmed cases and over 25,000 reported deaths from the virus.
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Among the hardest-hit states are New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Michigan, and California.
“It has been stunning to watch our Democratic colleagues treat emergency funding for Americans’ paychecks like a Republican priority which they need to be goaded into supporting,” the statement continued.
“Funding a bipartisan program should not be a partisan issue. The notion that crucial help for working people is not appealing enough to Democrats without other additions sends a strange message about their priorities.”
The statement concluded:
“The cost of continued Democratic obstruction will be pink slips and shuttered businesses."
"We hope Democrats see reason soon and finally heed Republicans’ repeated calls for a funding bill that can quickly earn unanimous consent from all 100 senators and become law.”
But as the Democrats block help to small businesses, Nancy Pelosi took time to take a swipe at President Donald Trump, describing his handling of the coronavirus pandemic “almost sinful.”
