Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi: We Must Kill The Virus And Lend More Quickly

Despite the messages emanating from the Republic National Convention this week, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) believes that the US government can, and must, do a lot more to revitalize the American economy – and must do it quickly.  He is calling for greater government assistance for small business over a sustained period. Krishnamoorthi believes that Congress will need to stay with American small business owners all the way through to the other side of the pandemic until new business models have emerged. 

Events this week confirm Rep. Krishnamoorthi’ s perspective. Another 1 million Americans filed for unemployment. The United States remains the world leader in COVID-19 cases and deaths, and the NBA gave voice to the millions of Americans frustrated by yet another police shooting of an African American man. America’s fundamental’s may be strong, but its teetering from crisis to crisis without strong leadership. 

Rep. Krishnamoorthi is one of the few Members of Congress with experience leading a startup – one that was a national leader in infrared sensors.  As someone who has run several small businesses, the Representative vividly remembers the difficulty he had raising capital during the last recession. According to Krishnamoorthi “even though my company was revenue positive and had 60 employees, I had  difficulty securing bank loans.  The market failed to support entrepreneurs like me”.  It also failed on the other end to shut off sub-prime lending. The resulting market failures led to the Dodd-Frank legislation, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and other regulation. 

Unfortunately, it appears as if we have learned very little from the last recession about how to support entrepreneurs. Krishnamoorthi spoke about a local Illinois entrepreneur in his district who makes men’s business wear. The entrepreneur has a track record of success but knows that wearing a business suit may be a permanent casualty of COVID-19. He is not asking for the US government to subsidize his business in perpetuity, or fund his entire operation, but to simply help him through until a new reality emerges and he can pivot his business to new opportunity. 

Rep. Krishnamoorthi is calling for another round of generous PPP loans.  He points out that small businesses employ about half of all Americans and their needs must be taken seriously by lenders.  Many members from both parties have shared stories about small business owners in their own districts, and how nearly all of them understand the long term changes that COVID-19 is causing their industries, their enterprise and are planning to pivot accordingly. 

“There is widespread support for additional funding for American small business, but disagreement about the amount and timeframe of the support.  We need to resolve those differences quickly.  I also believe we need to forgive PPP loans on the smaller side. We can’t treat these loans the same way we would treat a traditional commercial loan”, continued the Representative. 

Rep. Krishnamoorthi kept coming back to the importance of leadership – to contain the virus and restart our economy.  He emphasizes that the most important thing we can do for American entrepreneurs is “kill the virus”. He strongly supports a mask mandate and enforcement of social distancing to the extent that we can. He emphasizes that leadership, from the President, elected officials like himself, and business and community leaders is critical – everyone must continue to convey the dangers of COVID-19 and promote responsible social distancing and mask-wearing.  

Recent news reports have highlighted that hospitals, schools and other institutions may once again run low on PPE and other important materials to prevent COVID-19. He reiterated the Democratic call for the President to further utilize the Defense Production Act to manufacture, and store, critical products necessary to fight COVID-19 and future epidemics. 

The Fall campaign season will bring lots of rhetoric. But as many have commented already, the virus only knows illness and death. Denial of the virus or how long it will impact our society can only lead to poor public policy and unnecessary continuation of the pandemic.