House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview on Monday that it is “sickening” to watch House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) use small business aid as leverage to include more leftist provisions in future coronavirus legislation.
Scalise has collected stories from businesses across his district and the country that can no longer obtain a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan due to Pelosi’s objection to a simple renewal of the program.
Scalise described the stories as “heartbreaking” and said that he hopes his website will illustrate Pelosi’s “PPP obstruction.”
Scalise told Breitbart News, “I have asked small businesses across the country who have been rejected because the PPP ran out of money, trying to hold their business together, to share their story with me. And we received hundreds of stories, and so many of them are heartbreaking. Some of them are just trying to hold on to their family business and maybe the 20 employees that have been with them since the start of the company, and they might not be able to make it because Pelosi is playing these games.”
“I think the more we share these stories, it shows that there’s a human face to this game of chicken they’re playing with their livelihoods with millions of Americans, and hopefully that gets them past this hostage-taking attitude they have and gets them to a point where they reach out and help somebody and not do it in exchange for some unrelated liberal wish list,” Scalise added.
Delta Electronics Company in Harvey, Louisiana, said:
We are about 7 days away from shutting our doors down for good and possibly declaring bankruptcy. We don’t know what else to do. I’m tired of crying myself to sleep every night wondering what tomorrow holds. Will we lose everything we worked for? Our house? Our retirement? The Democrats need to stop playing games with peoples lives from their million dollar homes with their financially secure futures. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!
Star Coaches in Atlanta, Georgia, said:
I feel very bullied by Pelosi. I’m sure she’s in “no hurry” approving the extra funds… Meanwhile my husband almost had a mental breakdown yesterday. He’s had his tour-bus business for 30 years and then told the one saving hand that was within reach, one day away from having a SBA approval now went to, sorry we ran out of funds and Pelosi won’t let us deliver any more even though we have it! We’re now accumulating $200,000 in debt every month we’re closed, because of bus lease payments and bus insurance.
As small businesses continue to suffer from the lack of PPP funding, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) and Tina Smith (D-MN), as well as at least 15 House Democrats, called for an immediate replenishing of the PPP despite Pelosi’s objections.
On Sunday, Pelosi feigned ignorance about the rising number of Democrats calling for refusing the small business aid program.
Scalise told Breitbart News that Pelosi is holding back small business aid to appease the Democrats’ influential progressive wing such as Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Pramila Jayapal (D-WI).
“They’re not just holding back Republican pleas, they’re holding back Democrats, moderate mainstream Democrats who want relief for their districts as well, and Pelosi is ignoring those pleas to appease her radical fringe literally at the expense of millions of families who are struggling for their livelihood,” he said.
Scalise said that the PPP has “been incredibly successful, and it’s literally the only thing holding these businesses together, and now she and AOC and some of these other radicals are trying to use these workers’ jobs as leverage to get unrelated things like the Green New Deal. It’s sickening to watch.”
Scalise asked rhetorically, “And what kind of person would literally threaten the livelihood in the worst crisis to try to exhort some kind of hostage leverage as a lifeline?”
Read more stories of small businesses impacted by Pelosi’s political gamesmanship at RepublicanWhip.gov/ppp-obstruction.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on Twitter @SeanMoran3.
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