In recent days, funding for the Paycheck Protection Program that has been providing loans to help small businesses keep people on the payroll amidst the Coronavirus pandemic ran out, and rather than attempting to engage with the issues that Democrats have been raising, President Donald Trump and his allies have been running around for days now with the completely false narrative that Dems are blindly holding up adding new funds to the program. Thus, they claim, people are supposedly newly losing their jobs and it’s supposedly all the Democrats fault. Besides a select few other posts, this Saturday morning, President Trump posted around 30 tweets to that effect. Doesn’t he have a pandemic to be responding to?
Spending the morning speaking to @fema and Military relative to CoronaVirus. Also, spoke to leaders of various countries including Poland, South Korea and Bahrain. Last night had a very gold conversation with the President of Mexico on numerous topics. Border is very strong!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2020
John James will be a GREAT Senator for Michigan! https://t.co/yGiWzZ9nR0
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2020
Really nice to see this and, what a great pick! https://t.co/91104h0sd1
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2020
In one of the many posts that Trump retweeted, Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio insists:
‘In just 12 days #PPP has helped over 1 MILLION #SmallBusiness save 15 MILLION American jobs. But now it’s being held hostage by Democratic leaders. With everything people are going through this is disgusting.’
Democrats are not holding the funding “hostage.” That is reckless political rhetoric that has no basis in reality. In fact, Democrats are advocating for additional funding for other programs too, like assistance for local health authorities around the country and additional funding for federal food purchasing assistance programs for needy families. But, rather than engage with these concerns, Republicans are talking — and this is not an exaggeration — as if their plan is some kind of heaven-sent, pre-ordained destiny and “disgusting” Democrats are belligerently standing in the way of its implementation.
High end steak house receives $20 million in aid.
Many Mom and Pop shops have been shut out.
We c/n blindly give this administration billions more and expect things to be different.
That’s why House Dems are fighting for changes.
FACTS.https://t.co/QPYYn58397
— Hakeem Jeffries (@RepJeffries) April 17, 2020
Besides — the Republican plan for the small business assistance funding itself has problems. Ruth’s Chris Steak House, a large, publicly traded restaurant chain, got a whopping $20 million in assistance under the Paycheck Protection Program. Why were they prioritized above the needy American small businesses that Republicans are making themselves out as the valiant defenders of? It’s unclear if any leading Republican has even acknowledged this problem, let alone paused their pompous ranting for long enough to address it.
There are thousands of businesses in my district that are struggling to get relief and find a lender to work with. This article demonstrates exactly why we cannot simply dump more money into a broken program without first improving it.https://t.co/8EuBVQu54p
— (((Rep. Nadler))) (@RepJerryNadler) April 17, 2020
Check out more from the president below:
The rest of the president’s Twitter feed from early Saturday is largely more of the same. Check out Twitter’s response below…
