On Friday morning, it was announced that funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) had been exausted.
As part of the coronavirus stimulus package, the PPP program ensures that small businesses have the funds they need to continue paying their employees.
The loans are forgivable and function essentially as a grant as long as the businesses use the funds to continue to pay employees and keep them on payroll.
Now that the PPP has run out of money, many small businesses will be unable to continue paying their employees and bills.
Without more funding for the PPP, many small businesses may be forced to close.
But instead of working diligently to pass more additional funding, Pelosi has been seen showing off her $20,000 refrigerator as people wait in line for food banks.
This prompted President Trump to accuse Pelosi of being a “political hack” who is “not doing her job.”
More details on Trump’s assessment of Pelosi’s partisan performance below:
Both Republicans and Democrats have been away from the capital amid the COVID-19 outbreak.
However, as some states prepare to open their economies in May, many Republicans are planning on returning to D.C. to lead by example.
Now that the PPP funds have been exhausted, Republicans are aiming to replenish the bill cleanly with more funding.
Democrats, on the other hand, want to reform the bill to include funding for other organizations aside from small businesses.
The Hill has more details on Trump's critique on Pelosi's House leadership:
President Trump on Friday accused Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) of “not doing her job” and blamed Democrats for a stalemate over a deal to add funds to a small-business lending program to help companies suffering as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
“I think the Democrats are going to do it. Look, Nancy Pelosi, she’s away on vacation or something and she should come back,” Trump said at a White House briefing Friday evening. “She should come back and get this done. I don’t know why she’s not coming back. The fact is, she’s not doing her job and there’s nothing unusual about that for her.”
Trump’s remarks echoed a tweet he sent earlier Friday demanding for Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to “immediately” return to Washington to approve the legislation.
House and Senate Republicans have also been absent from the nation's capital amid the coronavirus outbreak, a detail that the president did not mention.
Republicans and Democrats have been unable to reach a deal to provide $250 billion in additional funds for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which was set up under a bipartisan coronavirus relief package negotiated and signed by Trump in late March.
Republicans want a clean bill to provide new money for the small-business loan program; Democrats have sought reform to the program as well as at least $250 billion in funding for hospitals, state and local governments and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for low-income families.
Before the funds for PPP ran out, many economists were warning that the funding for the program was not enough.
But instead of pro-actively replenishing the funds, Pelosi has spent her time in California, where she's been making late night television appearances, including her widely panned appearance on the Late Late Show with James Corden.
Pelosi's appearance on late night T.V. is what prompted President Trump to call her a "political hack."
Rather than leading Congress to approve more funding to protect small businesses, Pelosi appears to be more interested in gaining the approval of the Hollywood elite.
Newsweek has more details on Trump's blistering attack:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's television interview from her house on The Late, Late Show with James Corden appears to have irritated President Donald Trump who has retweeted criticism of her appearance.
Although Congress is in recess due to COVID-19, Pelosi has given TV interviews from her kitchen more than two dozen times over the past three weeks, according to The New York Times, in a media blitz in which she has taken repeated swipes at Trump's response to the virus.
In a light-hearted segment on the CBS show this week, Corden, who himself was broadcasting remotely, asked Pelosi what she could share from her San Francisco home for the "Late, Late Show and Tell."
She described her love of chocolate and lifted up a basket of candy before opening her freezer to show an array of chocolate ice cream which had been restocked over Easter. "I don't know what I would have done if ice cream had not been invented," she said.
Charlie Kirk, founder of conservative nonprofit Turning Point USA, wrote on Twitter about the segment to his 1.7 million followers with a message which took a swipe at the apparent expense of Pelosi's home, her fridges and her ice cream, "All while 22 million Americans file for unemployment and funding for small businesses runs dry. Shameful."
Trump retweeted Kirk's message with his own criticism of Pelosi, describing her as, "an incompetent political hack!"
"Come back to Washington & take care of our great American workers," Trump added. Newsweek has contacted Pelosi's office for comment.
Trump's comments were made after a letter Pelosi sent to Democratic colleagues was made public.
In her letter, Pelosi accuses Trump of failed leadership and claims that his inaction caused "unnecessary death and disaster."
Pelosi failed to acknowledge that the total number of deaths so far is well beyond the dire predictions.
It's easy to criticize with words as Pelosi has done.
President Trump continues to lead and make strong, bold choices that protect all Americans.
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