Team Obama Joins Republicans, Slaps Senate Dems & Pelosi Over ‘Stunt’
Karen G. Mills, who was Obama’s small business czar slapped Congressional Democrats over the way they treated small business owners. It’s obvious Team Obama is worried that what Pelosi and the Senate Democrats did could ruin their hopes of keeping the House in November.
One thing we know about Team Obama, not one person says anything without Obama’s blessing and this was a clear rebuke over the Democrats’ behavior. Mills was asked about the Paycheck Protection Program that has now run out of money and here is how she responded.
“Congress has to act as soon as possible,” Mills told CQ Roll Call in an interview Thursday, adding that she’s spoken recently with Democratic senators and Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office. “What I’m saying is: Number one, get the money replenished.”
Before Congress left DC Republicans tried to get an additional $250 billion in funding for the plan and Senate Democrats blocked the measure, Pelosi applauded the “stunt.”
“Complexity is not our friend here,” Mills said. “Things that have to be implemented quickly can’t have a lot of bells and whistles, or else there will be too many unintended consequences — one of which is delay. And we don’t have time to delay.”
Mills claims their an easier way to help small business and explains to Roll Call what she feels should be done:
Mills said there’s an easier way to ensure that the smallest small businesses get help: Congress should put a lending cap on $100 billion of the guarantee funds, limiting those to loans under a certain maximum, like $45,000. According to SBA data released Tuesday, the average PPP loan has been $239,000.
Beneficial State Bank’s Leach said there are other tweaks he’d like to see as well, such as raising the loan cap from 10 weeks of payroll to six months or a year. How much can be forgiven should also be increased from eight weeks to cover however long the stay-at-home orders are in effect, Leach said.
And the loan terms should also be increased from two years to the statutory limit of 10 years or longer, he said, so that if companies do have to pay them back, they aren’t saddled with paying back a big debt in just two years while the economy struggles to recover.
But, Leach, Mills, and Republicans all agree if the money doesn’t get replaced small businesses are going to disappear and it will be the Democrat’s fault.