I’m considering things great and small when my phone rings. I do not recognize the number, but the ring itself feels like a political survey, so I answer.
“Stand by for the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi,” the voice says. It sounds eerily like the Emperor in Star Wars. So, I wait. I wait. I wait.
“Big Red Car, how are you, dear?” the Speaker asks.
“Fine, Madame Speaker, et vous?”
One of the elements of the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act), the bi-partisan stimulus program in response to COVID19, was the $250B Payroll Protection Plan.
The CARES Act was passed unanimously by both the Senate and the House on a unanimous consent. Wow!
The PPP was a good deal based on its popularity, a popularity that has drained its coffers. The PPP is broke. Out of money. The need was enormous.
The PPP has deployed $350,000,000,000 and has thousands of more applications, but it is out of money.
The Congress has known this for almost two weeks now.
The Senate Republicans saw this — the exhaustion of funds for PPP — coming and more than a week ago they proposed a single change to the CARES Act — change the single number $350,000,000,000 to $600,000,000,000.
That’s it. Just that. Nothing more. One single change. Two numbers, nothing else. Simple, right?
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