[ad_1]
A Republican senator, Roger Wicker of Mississippi, had been rightly criticized for similar reasons two days earlier. But Salazar’s criticism is inaccurate.
Here are the facts.
Friday, the day after President Joe Biden signed the US $ 1.9 trillion bailout, Salazar tweeted the word “#BREAKING” with mermaid images around it, then wrote: “I am so proud to report that the Biden administration has just implemented my bipartisan COVID relief bill as part of the policy @SBAgov! ”
Salazar, a freshman House member, included a hyperlink and an image explaining that she was speaking about the recently announced decision by the Biden administration to give small businesses more time to repay loans in the event of a disaster. economic.
Many commentators have speculated that Salazar applauded part of the US bailout. But she wasn’t.
Facts first: Salazar did not take credit for any part of the US bailout. Rather, the lending policy she applauded was adopted by the Small Business Administration separately from the US bailout. Salazar and fellow Democrat Rep. Sharice Davids of Kansas had proposed a very similar loan policy in a bill they put forward in early March. This Salazar-Davids bill is what Salazar was referring to when she tweeted that the Biden administration had implemented “my bipartisan COVID relief bill”.
A White House official, the deputy director of the National Economic Council, Bharat Ramamurti, tweeted Sunday in an attempt to correct Salazar’s inaccurate criticism.
“I saw some confusion about this. On Friday – regardless of the US bailout bill – the SBA announced it was allowing companies over 3M to defer EIDL loan payments for an additional year. We are happy to see bipartisan support for this and other changes we have made to help small businesses, ”Ramamurti said.
The Small Business Administration acted “on its own authority”, in consultation with the Biden-Harris team, to effect the policy change – not as part of the US bailout, a spokesperson for the US said on Monday. Small Business Administration on condition of anonymity.
Salazar could be rightly criticized for celebrating this element of Covid relief after rejecting a wide range of other relief policies in the US bailout. And critics could accurately note that the US bailout she opposed includes billions of dollars in additional funding for small business loans and grants.
But much of the criticism of Salazar’s tweet was simply inaccurate. Critics with six- or seven-digit Twitter followings – including the California Democrat Rep. Ted Location; Fred wellman, executive director of the Lincoln Project, the conservative group that campaigned against President Donald Trump; songwriter and activist Holly Figueroa O’Reilly; Markos Moulitsas, founder of the progressive political website Daily Kos; and journalist Soledad O’Brien – falsely claimed that Salazar was praising a bill she voted against.
Moulitsas, O’Brien and Wellman quickly posted corrections after CNN contacted them to explain they were inaccurate. Lieu maintained his tweet, saying in a message to CNN that he believes the US bailout, and the provisions it contains to bolster the emergency loan program, “have given the SBA confidence to extend.” the repayment period.
(CNN presenter Chris Cuomo tweeted a question Sunday in response to Salazar’s tweet praising the loan policy, request on Twitter why she voted against the relief bill. Monday it tweeted that Salazar was right that the loan policy is separate from the relief bill.)
It is unclear what role Salazar, Davids or their bill’s additional co-sponsors played in the Biden administration’s decision. But their bill came well before the administration’s announcement.
On March 3, Salazar and Davids presented a proposal to the House to extend the due date for payment of interest and principal on economic disaster loans – to two years from the previous year. The loans, totaling more than $ 200 billion, were intended for small businesses and nonprofits that had suffered a temporary loss of income due to the pandemic.
On Friday, just over an hour before Salazar’s celebratory tweet, the Small Business Administration sent out a press release saying it would extend the due date for the first payment – to two years for all loans in the event. Small Business Administration disaster relief granted in 2020 and at 18 months for all these loans granted in 2021.
[ad_2]
Source link