Revealed: Areas Hit Hardest by Coronavirus All Voted Against Trump But He Helps Them Anyways

Democrats Should thank God President Trump is a president for Every American.

President Trump won the 2016 in an electoral college landslide.  He won over 30 states and a huge percent of counties around the US.  The areas that he did not win were the Democrat held big cities.  Areas like New York City, Washington D.C. and San Francisco all went to former first lady Hillary Clinton.  Now the areas that voted against President Trump need him the most.

Fortunately for the Democrat strongholds, President Trump is doing all he can to help them overcome the China coronavirus.

A map from the New York Times shows that the same areas that voted against President Trump are the areas hardest hit by the China coronavirus.  New York City accounts for near 40% of all coronavirus cases in the US:

Americans are fighting together against the China coronavirus.  It doesn’t matter what their politics are, Americans are willing to help others when they can, especially President Trump.

Hat tip D. Manny

 

The post Revealed: Areas Hit Hardest by Coronavirus All Voted Against Trump But He Helps Them Anyways appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

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Millions Of Small Businesses Stunned To Learn They Are Not Eligible For Bailout Loans

Millions Of Small Businesses Stunned To Learn They Are Not Eligible For Bailout Loans

It’s the first day that America’s small businesses can apply for the SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program, i.e., the $350BN program that is part of the bigger $2 trillion bailout package designed to provide small businesses access to capital for payroll and other overhead costs to the tune of 2.5 months of average payroll and which must be accessed via an existing banking relationship – and the rollout is predictably a mess, with some banks such as BofA already accepting loans (which convert to grants if used exclusively for payrolls and business continuity purposes), while others like JPM delaying the roll out to 1pm; a third group of banks such as Wells Fargo has conspicuously failed to provide its rollout plans – perhaps it is scheming how to cross-sell bailout loans with auto insurance or engage in some other typically Wellsfargoian fraud.

But a recurring shock as millions of small business owners head to these bank websites to apply for the PPP funds is that contrary to the SBA’s guidance that any small business with 500 or less employees can apply, going to lender portals shows that only a very narrow subset of America’s millions in small businesses are be eligible.

In fact, only those companies that already have a lending relationship, i.e., an outstanding loan with a given bank are – at least as of this moment – able to apply for the rescue funds.

Bank of America’s website confirms as much, stating on its eligibility page that only "clients with a business lending and a business deposit relationship at Bank of America are eligible to apply for a Paycheck Protection Program through our bank." In other words, any business that only has a deposit account and no loan or business card is out of luck.

And the kicker, literally, for those BofA clients who would like to become eligible and open a business loan account, well it’s too late: as the bank makes clear, this should have happened as of Feb 15.

To apply for the Paycheck Protection Program through our bank, you must have a pre-existing business lending and business deposit relationship with Bank of America, as of February 15, 2020. A Business Credit Card, line of credit or loan may be the lending product used.

Said otherwise, business who ran a clean balance sheet without debt are seen as riskier than businesses that carry loans, and are unduly penalized just because they never opened a loan with BofA.

JPMorgan is even more draconian in its selectivity of whom it will hand out Treasury-guaranteed money to. As the bank notes in its ironically-named "CARES" website, "You must have a Chase Business checking account as of February 15, 2020." Anyone who does not is straight out of luck.

And as countless other banks follow suit, the question becomes is this how the banks that were bailed out by ordinary Americans in 2008 will treat those same Americans when they need a rescue too? Alternatively, what happens to these banks when millions of small business fail and America’s economy plunges into an even deeper depression. One final question: how is it logical for banks to only bailout those companies which already have debt and are by extension riskier, than to provide funds to their ordinary clients who only now, for the first time, need a helping hand.

We eagerly await Steven Mnuchin’s answers to these questions.


Tyler Durden

Fri, 04/03/2020 – 11:13

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Exclusive — ‘Main Street Rescue’: Trump Admin Pushes Out Hundreds of Millions in Small Business Loans on First Day

President Donald Trump’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) through the Department of Treasury and Small Business Administration has already on its first day pushed out more than $620 million to small businesses nationwide mostly through community banks.

A senior Treasury Department official told Breitbart News on Friday morning that as of 10:30 a.m. eastern time, a total of 1,652 loans were given out through 239 different banks for a total of $628,371,561. Most of the big banks like JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup did not have programs online—only Bank of America did—early Friday morning, so this means community banks nationwide are the ones stepping up to push the money out to small businesses affected by the coronavirus crisis.

“When the unprecedented PPP loan program for America’s small businesses went live in the early morning hours of April 3, the community banks were the ones ready to go,” the senior Treasury Department official told Breitbart News. “Unlike the big banks that are coming online later in the day, the community banks were up and running and ready to serve their small businesses. America’s community banks are the real heroes.”

It’s worth noting too that given that community banks are the ones stepping up to help small businesses—and that they’re doing it at such a rapid pace on the first day of the program—that this counters the narrative from some on the left and in establishment media that somehow the efforts of Trump, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, and the broader administration were designed to only help big corporate cronies. Friday, as Mnuchin and Small Business Administration administrator Jovita Carranza announced at the White House Coronavirus Task Force briefing on Thursday night, is the first day these funds are going out to small businesses nationwide through banks across the country. The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, passed as part of the $2.2 trillion phase three coronavirus relief package that Congress passed last week.

Since this money is going directly to small businesses across the country, and since it’s mostly flowing through small community banks it is significantly boosting communities and main street across the country rather than Wall Street. “This is the Main Street rescue, not a Wall Street bailout,” the senior Treasury Department official added.

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Horowitz: Why is the administration preparing to bring in 85,000 foreign workers after shutting down our economy?

We are told that every business and many vital services, including many medical services, must be shut down indefinitely because of Anthony Fauci’s capricious and ever-evolving models and simulations. Do those same models and simulations also dictate that, with unemployment likely blowing out the Great Depression levels, we must continue to bring in more foreign workers?

Nearly all “non-essential” businesses are suspended in nearly every county of the country. Yet now, because immigration policy has been outsourced to former visa lobbyists like Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, one thing will not be shut down during this man-made economic Hiroshima: foreign workers, including those from … China!

When I warned last week about the H-1B lottery and the need to cancel it on April 1, I didn’t really think my notice was necessary. After all, how could an “America first” administration conduct such a foreign worker lottery while shutting down the entire economy for Americans? Nonetheless, I published the article for good measure. Well, it’s a shame 1,000 other conservatives didn’t post similar warnings, because “America first” has now become “India and China first.”

On April 1, USCIS considered bringing in more Chinese workers an “essential” function and opened registration for the first day of the visa lottery. Every year, 85,000 H-1B visas are awarded via this lottery, and on the first day it was already saturated with 275,000 applications from corporations, a 37 percent increase over last year. Those chosen will be eligible to come here in fiscal year 2021 beginning this October.  Of course, 67 percent was monopolized by Indian nationals, which is why we have lost our tech industry to foreign powers. Roughly 36,300 applications, though, were from, you guessed it, Chinese nationals!

Obviously, this doesn’t mean Chinese nationals will necessarily be chosen, but they have typically composed roughly 13 percent of the annual lottery. And it’s not like this administration is placing a moratorium on Chinese visas until the Chinese government comes clean on the cover-up of the China virus.

Bringing in any foreign workers, much less Chinese ones, at a time like this is akin to doubling our immigration from Saudi Arabia after 9/11. Ooops … we actually did that, but I digress.

This is not to cast aspersions on the Chinese people as a whole. But as long as the evil communist government is ruling that country, our current policies put us at their mercy in times like this in three ways.

  1. China is our #2 source of immigrants and #1 source of foreign students. China is historically the source of many viral outbreaks, and there is no reason to believe that will change in the future. This has created a huge amount much travel back and forth, making us vulnerable to any virus they spread from China.
  2. Through the pipeline of monopolizing our universities and then through worker visas and green cards, the Chinese government uses many of its nationals to spy, steal our technology, and then bring the expertise back home, which encourages outsourcing.
  3. Once China accomplishes 1 and 2, the Chinese government has us around the neck, because all of our critical medical and other supply lines trace back to the very source of the viral outbreaks.

We now know that China destroyed evidence and covered up critical information that could have given the world weeks of head start in blocking travel and bending the curve. How in the world can we allow China to own our universities, our immigration system, and our supply chains, knowing the Chinese government’s intentions and knowing how it has unleashed an economic and health care version of 9/11 on us?

Finally, putting China aside, we had 10 million unemployment claims filed just in two weeks. If you account for those who have had wages or hours cut, that includes 39 percent of all adults in the country! And we are just three weeks into this. The bipartisan political elites, sadly, including this administration, want this to go on for much longer. Under what sort of morality or model can this action be justified? Don’t tell me Fauci’s models show that bringing in more foreign workers will also save more lives too!

Further appalling is that, thanks to the misguided strategy of this universal shutdown, many nurses are being furloughed across the country. Among the other sacred foreign work permit programs promoted by some of these same administration officials is Optional Practical Training (OPT), which brings in numerous foreign nurses here as students. Employers facing a massive pool of unemployed Americans will be incentivized to hire them because, under the lawless, unauthorized OPT program, they don’t have to pay payroll taxes. Why wouldn’t Trump immediately suspend the OPT program?

It’s not that nothing good is coming out of the administration on immigration. Illegal immigration is finally being stopped at the border the way it should have been three years ago, and after much pressure from people like Tucker Carlson, it looks like the DHS will delay plans to bring in more low-skilled H-2B workers.

Which illuminates the salient point of this administration. There are good patriots like Acting CBP Commissioner Mark Morgan and Acting Deputy DHS Secretary Ken Cuccinelli, and their work is reflected in some of the positive developments. But then there are people like Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who represent the opposite worldview to the one Trump campaigned on, and their work is reflected in the bulk of the negative policy outcomes.

The moral of the story is that conservatives with influence can’t hope that Trump drains the swamp; they must demand it. And that begins with the shallow state within the administration itself.

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FDA Gives Emergency Approval To Blood Test To Find Who Has Antibodies, Is Immune To SARS-CoV-2

A blood test to determine who has been infected by SARS-CoV-2 is one thing, but a test to find out who has already had it is a whole different kettle of fish.

Because the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 can infect some people with absolutely no symptoms, an unknown number of people who are likely holed up in their homes have already been infected and are therefore immune. As the virus continues to sweep across the country, a test to find out who is immune will be key to re-opening the economy.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now authorized the first blood test, known as a serology test, to look for antibodies in the blood.  Cellex Inc., a medical device company based in North Carolina, says the test could help physicians determine how widespread the virus is and the duration of immunity for people after they recover.

“Based on the totality of scientific evidence available to FDA, it is reasonable to believe that your product may be effective in diagnosing COVID-19,’  FDA chief scientist Denise Hinton wrote in a letter to James Li, CEO of Cellex. “The known and potential benefits of your product when used for diagnosing COVID-19 outweigh the known and potential risks of your product.”

“Current diagnostic tests, known as RT-PCR, are invasive and use genetic analysis to see if a person is actively infected,” Agence France Presse reported.

“Serologic testing, which only requires a drop of blood to conduct, focuses instead on finding virus antibodies, the presence of which indicates that an individual has had COVID-19 and is now likely immune. “Antibodies are one of the key immune response components. They start to be detectable around a week after initial infection,” said Andrew Preston, a reader in Microbial Pathogenesis at the University of Bath.

There are two types of antibodies associated with the COVID-19 immune response: IgM, which the body produces in the early stages of viral response, and IgG, which arrive later on during infection. The tests being developed can identify both antibodies, key hallmarks of a patient’s auto-immune response to the virus.

“Thus there is great interest in the use of an antibody test to indicate immunity against disease for use in the lifting of lockdown restrictions,” said Preston.

“In a vast majority of infectious diseases, recovery from disease and evidence of a strong immune response would lead to a period of immunity from re-occurrence,” he said.

Antibodies against the novel coronavirus are “generally detectable in blood several days after initial infection,” according to the FDA.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also says it is working on its own serology test. Such tests are already in use for other illnesses and any new test for coronavirus antibodies can be analyzed in labs using existing hardware.

Once millions of people are tested, those who have antibodies can emerge from their homes and get back to work. “The main question is how to ensure everyone can return to work,” Francois Blanchecotte, president of the French Union of Biologists, told AFP.

 

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Rush Limbaugh Offers Theory About Low Coronavirus Deaths In California

On Thursday, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh addressed the question of why California is not experiencing New York-like percentages of coronavirus cases and suggested that social distancing measures alone would not explain the significant disparity between the two states.

Dr. Deborah Birx, a leading member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force has seemingly credited early “social distancing” for the major discrepancy between California and hard-hit New York, but Limbaugh is skeptical that a state-wide two-day head start on “social distancing” measures did the trick.

As of Friday morning, there are 215 coronavirus-associated deaths in California (population 40 million), and 2,373 in New York (population 20 million).

“I have to get something off my chest here,” Limbaugh started. “For the past three days, I, El Rushbo, have been asking why California has not had more coronavirus cases and more coronavirus deaths. There are 40 million people.”

“This is the number of COVID-19 cases per million population. And West Virginia number one, 106,” the host detailed. “There are no Chinese there to speak of. Nebraska, ditto. California, 248 cases per million population. Forty million people in California. The number of cases is statistically tiny compared to the size of that state. New York City, 4,312 cases per million population. This is cases, not deaths.”

“Now, I’ve been asking why California hasn’t had more cases given the number of Chinese that come into that state, the large number of Chinese that live there,” he continued.

California officials are crediting their head start on social distancing measures, Limbaugh said. “Okay. Well, when did they start social distancing?” he asked. “Are you ready to be a little surprised? California ordered social distancing only 13 days ago. They didn’t order social distancing in December. They didn’t order social distancing in January. California did not order social distancing in February. They ordered it 13 days ago.”

“Do you know when New York state ordered social distancing?” the conservative asked. “Eleven days ago.”

“We are supposed to believe that two days made all the difference in the number of cases between California and New York?” Limbaugh said skeptically. “California, again, 248 cases of COVID-19 per million population. New York, 4,312. California began social distancing two days before New York. De Blasio wouldn’t even shut down the schools until recently, you remember? I don’t know how two days of social distancing before New York started it, New York state started it, could have this big a difference. It just doesn’t jibe.”

Limbaugh continued: “This time of year in California is warmer than New York. Almost nobody uses public transportation in much of California, particularly compared to the population center of New York state, which is New York City. The number of people walking on the streets in Los Angeles is infinitesimally small compared to the number of people walking on the streets in New York. Los Angeles is in fact a big, gigantic suburb with a little hub of a downtown where very few people live. And yet we’re being told that two days, a two-day head start in social distancing is the difference?”

“It can’t be. There have to be other reasons,” the host emphasized. “Why won’t somebody be honest about what they are, what they possibly are?”

“Well, because we’re being governed right now by social models, which tell us that social distancing is the only thing we can do,” explained the 69-year-old. “And in order to effect social distancing, we have to shut down.”

Limbaugh, clearly unconvinced “social distancing” is the key factor in keeping the COVID-19 death toll low, posited a theory of herd immunity, suggesting the novel coronavirus has already built up significant immunity in the state:

Let me just tell you what I think it is. I’m a layman. I’m just telling you what I think. I’m not a medical guy. I’m not telling you with ontological certitude. I think it is herd immunity that took place in California in December. A lot of people had something; they didn’t know what it was. It wasn’t flu. They lived through it. They got past it. That’s what I think happened in California.

The same theory was floated by politico Victor Davis Hanson at National Review on Tuesday.

“One less-mentioned hypothesis is that California, as a front-line state, may have rather rapidly developed a greater level of herd immunity than other states, given that hints, anecdotes, and some official indications from both China and Italy that, again, the virus may well have been spreading abroad far earlier than the first recorded case in the U.S. —and likely from the coasts inward,” wrote Hanson. “So given the state’s unprecedented direct air access to China, and given its large expatriate and tourist Chinese communities, especially in its huge denser metropolitan corridors in Los Angeles and the Bay Area, it could be that what thousands of Californians experienced as an unusually ‘early’ and ‘bad’ flu season might have also reflected an early coronavirus epidemic, suggesting that many more Californians per capita than in other states may have acquired immunity to the virus.”

However, Akiko Iwasaki, a virologist at the Yale School of Medicine, is skeptical, noting that herd immunity is typically associated with vaccination. The Atlantic reported:

Herd immunity is typically generated through vaccination, and while it could arise through widespread infection, “you don’t rely on the very deadly infectious agent to create an immune population,” says Akiko Iwasaki, a virologist at the Yale School of Medicine. 

Partial transcript via RushLimbaugh.com 

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Liberal Cities Reverse Plastic Bag Bans, Ban Reusable Bags; Plastic Industry Lobbies For More

While the economy-crushing coronavirus shutdowns are wreaking havoc in just about every industry, the plastic industry is seeing, at least temporarily, one “win”: A growing number of liberal cities and states that have imposed bans or fees on single-use plastic bags are reversing their policies amid concerns about the health risks posed by reusable bags.

“In the latest sign of how dramatically the coronavirus pandemic is altering the social landscape, even the liberal San Francisco Bay Area this week banned reusable grocery bags as a sanitary measure, dismaying recycling advocates who say durable sacks should still be allowed at stores,” Politico reported earlier this week.

The famously radical-left city’s Department of Public Health announced the temporary reversal of its 2007 plastic bag ban on Tuesday as part of an update to its coronavirus “stay-at-home” order. The new ordinance restricts customers from bringing into stores their own reusable items, like bags and mugs.

As usual, San Francisco is leading the way in terms of severity of  its ban effort, imposing what Politico’s Debra Kahn describes as “the most stringent coronavirus-related restriction placed on reusable bags in California.”

“[F]aced with the realities of the coronavirus, the city’s leaders have realized that excessive environmentalism isn’t always compatible with the realities of the world we live in today,” Hot Air’s Jazz Shaw writes. “As such, the ban has been not only lifted but reversed. Reusable bags are now banned in the City by the Bay.”

In other words, the city that once led the nation in reusable bag enforcement is now one of the first to officially ban them.

And, as Shaw notes, San Francisco isn’t the only progressive city reversing course on the plastic bag ban — “Maine, New York and Massachusetts have all either suspended their plastic bag bans or halted enforcement of the regulations,” he writes.

Meanwhile, as reported by Politico, the plastic industry is pushing hard for their cause across the country, lobbying on the federal level as well as some key states, including New York and New Jersey, “asserting that often-unwashed reusable bags are hotbeds for the coronavirus, which early research suggests can remain on surfaces.”

Along with the plastic ban reversal in San Francisco, other “environmentally-friendly” efforts have been abandoned by the general populace, with people rushing out to their local grocery stores to buy up all of the bottled water, while companies impose their own bans on reusable items, including Starbucks and Coffee Bean.

Environmentalists are trying to push back, but so far to no avail. Kahn cites Californians Against Waste Executive Director Mark Murray chiding the “misguided” anti-reusable bag movement, but also expressing some sympathy. “This fear of bringing reusable bags into the stores is misguided, but I certainly understand why store employees don’t want to handle somebody else’s things,” said Murray. “I wouldn’t have any expectation that somebody is going to put my groceries into my bag that I brought from home.”

Related: Experts Question WH Coronavirus Projections; Fauci: ‘You Can’t Rely On The Models,’ Too Many Variables

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Nurses Pray Over Patients on Hospital Roof During Break: ‘Go to the Helipad and Pray’

A group of Nashville nurses went to the roof of a hospital during their break to pray for hospital staff and patients suffering from the coronavirus.

Nurses Angela Gleaves, Sarah Franklin Kremer, Beth Hofflin Tiesler, and McKenzie Gibson went to the roof of Vanderbilt University Medical Center to pray over both the patients and staff in their hospital.

Photographs show the nurses praying with hands folded on the rooftop of the building before posing for selfies with one another.

“When you have a few extra minutes at work you take the time to go to the Helipad and pray,” Gleaves wrote in a Facebook post.

“We prayed over the staff in our unit as well as all of the hospital employees.”

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“We also prayed over the patients and their families during this trying time.”

“We also prayed for all of our colleagues around the world taking care of patients,” Gleaves added. “It felt good to do this with some of my amazing co-workers. We could feel God’s presence in the wind. Know that you are all covered in prayer.”

Gibson posted photos of the incident with the caption, “To pray is to turn over kingdoms. To kneel in humility and uncertainty of the times toward the certainty of Love and Peace is an act of holy war against anxiety and fear.”

“To silence the voices of doom before the presence of God and stand in prayer for our colleagues fighting in every minute, here and all over the world.”

Gleaves told TODAY that they “just wanted to share (the pictures) to let everyone know that we were praying not only for our hospital, but all the patients and the families.”

“It’s just a really hard time for families as well as patients right now because a lot of hospitals aren’t allowing visitors,” she added.

Gleaves formerly served as a flight nurse.

RELATED: Doctor Who Went Viral for Greeting Son Through Glass Door Survived Tornado ‘By the Grace of God’

She helped transport patients during airplane and helicopter transports and arranged with the flight communicator for the nurses to go up to the helipad for about 10 minutes to pray, she told TODAY.

“It was a great moment. There was a little bit of wind, and I felt like it was God pushing us to care for these patients and do what we’re trained to do.”

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Newsom Confirms Exactly What We Warned About: Pushes To Use COVID To Launch New Progressive Age

It’s opportunistic, it’s insensitive, it’s downright appalling — in other words, it’s exactly what you’d expect a Democrat to do in a crisis.

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom was asked in a news conference Wednesday if he sees the coronavirus pandemic crisis as “potential” for a “new progressive era” and gave his honest answer.

“Absolutely. We see this as an opportunity to reshape the way we do business and how we govern. That shouldn’t put shivers up one the spines of one party or the other,” Newsom said — except that it does.

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Newsom trotted out all of the usual leftist talking points even as he closed by listing his capitalist bona fides as a business owner.

The governor pointed to his state’s economic successes but said, “The wealth distribution, the income inequality, was not something that was substantially improving.

“The middle-class feeling squeezed. Increasingly, the trend lines were suggesting what is self-evident become a headline and that is we were going from a three-class society to a two-class society.”

If you’ve paid attention to any of Newsom’s comrades on the left and their class warfare rhetoric, you know this is the same tired, recycled Marxism that Democrats perpetuate for political gain.

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“So something was fundamentally flawed in that global context, manifested quite acutely here in the state of California, the richest and the poorest state with the number of the most impoverished metros in the country,” Newsom said, as if unaware that his party has been in power for quite some time in the state. “And we’ve long been struggling to address those issues.

“So I see this quite substantively through that lens, that equity lens.”

Since 1992, California has voted for the Democrat in every single presidential race, and it has had a Democrat governor for almost a decade.

Newsom drove home that he wants politicians to “think more systemically, not situationally,” which sums up the thrust of Democrat philosophy to reset the political system in a crisis.

His plan echoes Rahm Emanuel’s famous line, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.” Emanuel uttered that call to arms when he was President Barack Obama’s chief of staff during the administration’s handling of the 2008 economic crisis.

RELATED: Pelosi Using Coronavirus Crisis To Push Tax Break for Her Wealthy Neighbors

Even as President Donald Trump was working on a way to help the economy during the coronavirus pandemic, Democrats were trying to worm all kinds of nonsense into the Coronavirus Aid Relief and Economic Security Act.

Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz called out the Democrats for doing exactly what Emanuel had said as they tried to push for ridiculous new regulations.

“Sadly, we’re seeing the embodiment of that cynical approach right now,” he said of Democrats’ opportunistic exploitation of the bill.

“Because all the people out of jobs, the Democrats are using to push – what are they pushing for? Changing the emission standards on airplanes,” Cruz said.

“Mr. President, what the hell do the emissions standards on airplanes have to do with thousands of people dying and millions of people out of work in the coronavirus epidemic?” the senator said in his impassioned plea.

Even after the massive $2 trillion bill CARES Act passed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was sniffing around for a tax break for her and her wealthy neighbors by repealing the cap on state and local tax deduction for those making over $100,000, according to The New York Times.

The Ways and Means GOP Twitter shared the news about her effort. “Pelosi is trying to make good on that promise by aiming to roll back the SALT cap, which would result in funneling money to the wealthy elite,” the post said.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, is dusted off and propped up anytime there’s a chance for him to gain any relevance. Before the CARES Act, the 77-year-old politician made sure to reach for the youth vote by including one of their pet causes.

After parroting the trite talking points about why the bill should pass, Biden urged the inclusion to “forgive a minimum of $10,000/person of federal student loans, as proposed by Senator [Elizabeth] Warren and colleagues,” he wrote.

“Young people and other student debt holders bore the brunt of the last crisis,” he said, evidently forgetting that he was the vice president during the 2008 economic downturn. “It shouldn’t happen again.”

The vultures on the left are using the coronavirus crisis for their own ends.

If they have their way, they will reshape the government in their own image and funnel taxpayer dollars to their causes while everyone else is concerned with the actual crisis at hand.

It is important, even as lawmakers and citizens alike grapple with the unprecedented emergency, that liberty not be another casualty of the coronavirus.

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Poll: Large Number of Small Businesses Are on the Brink of Permanent Closure as Coronavirus Shutdown Takes Its Toll

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Poll: Large Number of Small Businesses Are on the Brink of Permanent Closure as Coronavirus Shutdown Takes Its Toll

A normally busy Main Street in Rockton, Illinois, is deserted as the small businesses that line the business district remain closed March 24, 2020, amid a shelter-in-place order to curtail the spread of the coronavirus.Scott Olson / Getty ImagesA normally busy Main Street in Rockton, Illinois, is deserted as the small businesses that line the business district remain closed March 24, 2020, amid a shelter-in-place order to curtail the spread of the coronavirus. (Scott Olson / Getty Images)

A new survey shows that the restrictions imposed to slow the spread of the coronavirus are causing major damage to the ranks of the nation’s small businesses.

In many jurisdictions across the nation, businesses deemed “nonessential” by state or local authorities have been forced to shut down.

The MetLife & U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index issued a special report Friday on a survey that found 24 percent of small businesses said they were temporarily shut down and another 40 percent expect to close over the next two weeks.

More alarming, however, is the fact that 43 percent of the businesses responding to the survey “believe they have less than six months until a permanent shutdown is unavoidable,” the report said.

In the retail sector, which accounts for a large percentage of small businesses, 51 percent said they do not think they can last more than six months.

TRENDING: While Dems Lie About Trump’s CDC Budget, Turns Out Obama Requested Millions in Cuts

President Donald Trump has called upon Congress to act to support small businesses.

The survey found that 11 percent do not think they can stay in business another month, while 13 percent give themselves two months or less. Of the businesses surveyed, 19 percent think they will hold out between three and six months, while 16 percent say they think they will endure between six months and a year.

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The businesses surveyed do not believe this is simply a blip on the economic screen. The poll found that 46 percent of them believe it will take the economy at least six months and perhaps up to a year to recover from the coronavirus-induced restrictions that have impacted their businesses.

The survey found that 58 percent of small businesses are very concerned about the impact of the virus on their business, with the greatest concerns coming from service-sector businesses in the Northeast with 20 or more employees.

Fifty-four percent of the small businesses surveyed rated the American economy’s health as poor. Only roughly one in four respondents said the national economy was doing well, and only 32 percent believed the same locally.

According to the Chamber of Commerce, those figures represent a major drop; confidence in the national economy was 35 points higher in the previous quarter, reflecting the strength of the pre-virus Trump economy.

The business survey found that the remedy for the nation’s economic ills selected by the president is also their top choice. Fifty-six percent of the businesses surveyed said the best thing to help them would be a direct infusion of cash to the American people, something that Trump ensured was included in the coronavirus relief package he signed last month.

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The survey found that 30 percent of businesses said loans and financial aid in the relief package will be the most helpful to them, while 21 percent said payroll tax relief was the best help they could have.

The survey was conducted March 25-28 by Ipsos among a sample of about 500 small business owners.

The plight of the nation’s small businesses was also outlined in a recent Harris poll that found 71 percent of the small businesses surveyed reported their revenue had fallen in recent weeks as virus-linked restrictions have been imposed. Twenty-eight percent of businesses said their revenue was down 50 percent or more.

The Harris poll found that 10 percent of businesses surveyed said they had already gone out of business permanently.

The survey found optimism in short supply looking forward. Seventy-five percent of businesses said they could endure another month, but then came the drop-off in hope: Only 58 percent said they could survive for another three months, and 46 percent said they were confident they could make it for six months.

The Chamber of Commerce survey did find some hope looking forward, with 57 percent feeling positive about the overall health of their businesses and 23 percent saying they expect to hire people in the coming year.

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via The Western Journal

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