On Thursday, Senate Majority Leader McConnell asked the Senate to approve President Trump’s request for an additional $250 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), and we were supportive of this request.
The PPP is good policy because it is temporary, targeted, and has an immediate impact; it helps small businesses to continue paying employees, even if business has slowed due to a government-ordered shutdown. It prevents lay-offs, eases economic hardship for employees, and will allow for more of America’s workforce to immediately return to full employment as soon as stay-at-home orders are lifted or eased.
Senate Democrats threatened to object to further support of the bipartisan PPP unless their liberal policy wishlist was also included. They wanted:
- $100 billion for hospitals and health care centers
- $150 billion to bail out state and local governments
- Increased funding for food stamps
Making good on their threats, Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD) blocked the Senate’s $250 billion increase to the Paycheck Protection Program—money that would have kept American workers employed.
Once again, the Left doesn’t care about working Americans…unless they can be used as bargaining chips to push their liberal agenda.