Alfredo Ortiz, President and CEO of the Job Creators Network, is praising the Trump administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan program as “one of the most successful government programs of all time” as it helped “small business owners keep their lights on and keep their employees paid in order to survive government-imposed lockdowns.”
“The PPP is a bipartisan success story and one of the most successful government programs of all time,” Ortiz said Tuesday in a press release. “That’s because it was a true partnership with the private sector, helping small business owners keep their lights on and keep their employees paid in order to survive government-imposed lockdowns. The results are clear, five million small businesses obtained PPP loans saving 51 million jobs and primed America to start a V-shaped recovery under President Trump’s leadership.”
President Trump’s signature in late April made the landmark relief program for small businesses law, providing government-backed bank loans to small businesses impacted by the economic upheaval caused by the coronavirus. With hundreds of thousands of businesses shuttered due to government mandated lockdowns, the PPP loans were meant to keep workers on payroll, so that they could easily come back to work once the economy reopened.
“Those who want to attack the program are missing the forest for the trees. When you consider the speed with which the program was put together and the urgency of the crisis, it was inevitable there would be some kinks along the way. The PPP was designed to aid small businesses and it accomplished that mission,” Ortiz said.
This week, the Trump administration released the names of 650,000 borrowers who used the program, taking loans of $150,000 or more. The media has used the information to play partisan politics. But as Breitbart News economic editor John Carney notes, the program, so far, has done what it was intended to do.
It appears to be working, although it is still early and the data on jobs saved is sparse. But the economy stopped shedding jobs in May and employers hired a record number of workers. That kept up in June. There are still a huge number of layoffs each week but the number has come way down since the program was implemented (although, admitedly, progress here has stalled in recent weeks).
“Those who want to turn a bipartisan success story into another front in the endless war against President Trump will only hurt our small business community and our economy,” Ortiz said. “We can’t let that happen.”
Jerome Hudson is Breitbart News Entertainment Editor and author of the bestselling book 50 Things They Don’t Want You to Know. Order your copy today. Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.