Get the latest BPR news delivered free to your inbox daily. SIGN UP HERE.
A Washington State business owner faced backlash from her employees after she obtained a forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loan from the federal government that has allowed her to keep them fully paid through the coronavirus pandemic.
In an interview with CNBC this week, salon owner Jamie Black-Lewis of the Oasis Medspa & Salon in Woodinville and Amai Day Spa in Bothell said her employees were furious because they were already “making” more money being unemployed.
And the reason they were “making” more being unemployed was because of a Democrat-pushed provision that was added to the CARES Act.
The provision added “a flat $600 a week to the typical weekly benefits paid by one’s state,” CNBC reported. “Those traditional benefits, which vary widely between states, replaced about 40% of one’s prior wages.”
“The measure’s improved $600-a-week payments, which run through July, aim to boost that wage replacement rate to 100% for the average worker. But some, especially lower-wage workers, can come out ahead.”
And that’s exactly what happened in Black-Lewis’s case, just as congressional Republicans had repeatedly warned.
Jamie Black-Lewis, a #Washington State business owner of two spas with 35 employees got two forgivable #PPP loans. Her employees hate her for it. Because they would rather collect #unemployment. The unintended consequence of #CARES https://t.co/qyuYOHnihy and @GregIacurci
— Keith Gormezano – #Top 100 #QuickBooks #ProAdvisor (@drquickbooks) April 23, 2020
“It’s a windfall they see coming,” Black-Lewis said of the unemployment benefits her employees were slated to “earn.” “In their mind, I took it away. I couldn’t believe it. On what planet am I competing with unemployment?
On a planet that contains naive Democrats, no doubt …
“It was a firestorm of hatred about the situation,” she added.
Included among the many Republicans who spoke out last month against the inclusion of the Democrat-pushed provision were Sens. Rick Scott and Tim Scott.
“We have a virus and we know people can’t work for a variety of reasons,” Rick Scott said at the time. “We got to help them, but at the moment we go back to work, we cannot create an incentive not to work. We cannot be paying people more money on unemployment than they get paid in their job.”
“[W]e cannot encourage people to make more in unemployment than in employment,” Tim Scott added. “This legislation would not stop at 100 percent of your income. This legislation would allow people to make more in unemployment than in employment.”
In response to Republicans’ logical rebuttals, congressional Democrats and their left-wing media allies pounced with hysteria and smears:
Graham, Sasse, Rick Scott and Tim Scott holding up bill because it provides unemployment benefits of $600 per week for 4 months.
After they voted to give big corps $500,000,000,000.
Senators, This is a national emergency. We want people to stay home. What don’t you get?
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) March 25, 2020
Pelosi: “49 Republicans last night voted in the Senate to deprive those on unemployment insurance of the additional $600 a week. How could it be that in this time of stress and strain and uncertainty … that they would vote that way? … [It’s] not about workers first.”
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 26, 2020
“Can you believe last night that almost, I think was every Republican, I think 49 Republicans last night voted in the Senate to deprive those on unemployment insurance of the additional $600 a week”
(Collins and Gardner voted against the amendment, Manchin voted for)— Nicholas Wu (@nicholaswu12) March 26, 2020
3 million filed for unemployment last week, an unprecedented surge that will crush state UI agencies.
Congress is passing a bill to boost benefits by $600.
Senate Republicans thought it was too much and wanted state agencies to calculate individual amounts for every worker.
— Arthur Delaney (@ArthurDelaneyHP) March 26, 2020
Why do Republicans want to kill American citizens? People are DYING and Republicans are worried that $600 a week will make people fat and lazy! Pompeii holding up a G7 statement for racism. Hell isnt big enough.
— Lisa Donohue (@ldonohue) March 25, 2020
Republicans are more worried about what unemployed & impoverished Americans will do with an extra $600 during a financial crisis than they are with what billion dollar companies will do with billions of dollars with little oversight & no strings attached
— Adam Blickstein (@AdamBlickstein) March 25, 2020
Only $600 if you’re beneath the poverty level?
Once again, Republicans get it backwards and don’t seem to understand that poor people need more help than those with money. https://t.co/ahC8XYPke2
— Nathan Schneider (@NSchneiderAZ13) March 20, 2020
As the repercussions of the Democrat-pushed measure were becoming more apparent a couple of weeks later in mid-April, Sen. Lindsey Graham warned that it needed to be fixed.
“Here’s the problem: The unemployment benefits in South Carolina are $23/hour to be unemployed,” he said during an appearance on Fox News last week.
“You’ve got a lot of small businesses trying to keep their employees on the payroll paying $16 and $17/hour. One program is undercutting the other. We’ve got to get that fixed.”
Watch via FNC’s “Fox & Friends” (disable your adblocker if the video doesn’t appear):
(Source: Fox News)
In response, again members of the left again pounced, with some even going so far as to accuse Graham of being a racist …
Look:
This is the standard racist southern argument against unemployment insurance, dating back to its adoption during the New Deal.
— Michele Dauber (@mldauber) April 21, 2020
People don’t get unemployment insurance unless theyre fired. Job availability is collapsing.
Is @LindseyGrahamSC really so stupid he believes people are leaving jobs for unemployment insurance they CANT get for resigning? Or is this some sort of dog whistle I’m not hearing? https://t.co/0KIidPqIxH
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) April 21, 2020
What happened to Black-Lewis clearly demonstrates that, as usual, the condescending left-wing elites screeching the loudest about “evil Republicans” were wrong AGAIN.
DONATE TO BIZPAC REVIEW
Please help us! If you are fed up with letting radical big tech execs, phony fact-checkers, tyrannical liberals and a lying mainstream media have unprecedented power over your news please consider making a donation to BPR to help us fight them. Now is the time. Truth has never been more critical!
[email protected]
V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
- Bill Gates is funding AI ‘equity’ research pushing for more government involvement - October 4, 2023
- Fox News tries to cut Tucker fan troll who called into live broadcast, but the damage was done - October 4, 2023
- Gaetz blisters lawmakers who would ‘grovel’ for lobbyist money in epic rant - October 4, 2023
Comment
We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.
