The Oakland Mayor And City Council can’t back away from Biden’s woes; they;’re responsible. President Joe Biden is taking a bit of a beating in a new CBS Poll released on this MLK Day and about how he is handling the Pademic and the economy. The headline of the CBS News article reads “CBS News poll shows growing frustration with President Biden’s handling of pandemic” and is here at Oakland News Now. But it’s based on this video:
The main problem (aside from the COVID-19 virus’ refusal to die under the weight of new vaccines, and too many refusing to get vaccinated) is that the American Economy is not singularly ran by the President and the Federal Government: State and Local Governments play a giant role too. That’s where the problem lays, and Oakland’s an excellent example, with Sacramento and the California Legislature in tow.
The real problem is that Oakland and California issue rules regarding business activity during the COVID-19 Pandemic that call for reductions in walk-in people shopping or eating or congregating, but does nothing to get money to the businesses as compensation. For some reason, my Democratic Party has become allergic to getting money to its own constituents, let alone Americans regardless of political party.
For example. All of the programs developed to help small business people in Oakland and American were made by the Trump Administration; the Biden Administration has no new small business focused program of its own to tout; it’s taken up the mantle of caretaker of Trump’s plan. So, not surprisingly, under President Trump, billions of dollars flowed to small business people via big bank partners like Bank of America, with the promise that they could be forgiven; but under Biden, the big bank partners worked to make as little of those loans forgivable, dumping an unwanted debt on the American People in the middle of The Pandemic.
The Biden Administration’s Small Business Administration has done nothing to solve the problem by going to Congress with a plan to forgive the loans, outright. And local and State officials have done nothing to push Biden and Congress to act. All of this while PPP Loan recipients have closed their business doors under the unexpected weight of the supposedly forgivable loan. So, while representatives like the Legendary Barbara Lee were quick to have video press conferences about Oakland businesses who got the PPP Loan, they were silent and inactive when it came to cries to fix the problem and make Bank of America stop changing the rules the government created.
Bank of America And Chase Handling Of PPP Loan And SBA Do-Nothing Stance Harms The American Economy. Oakland Mayor, Oakland City Council, Buffy Wicks, Barbara Lee, Can Help, But Have Not
The CBS Poll on Biden did not reflect this problem, only CBS’s view of it. Otherwise, it would have included mention of the PPP Loan or how businesses have closed by the millions nationally with no plan for revival. The economic development action called “business retention” was forgotten in the formation of the Trump plan, and Biden has done nothing to introduce it – and he has the Congressional ability to do it. Locally, our elected officials point at and say they’re working to solve what really are the cosmetic results of policy problems like the PPP Loan; they don’t focus on fixing them. The simple act of getting money to people in large amounts, a talent we Democrats once had, is gone today. I will give you an example: the City of Oakland and local state elected officials failure to use AB 464 to get money to California and Oakland small business.
California Legislation AB 464 (passed June 28th, 2021 and introduced by Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco) is described by its makers this way:
Allows local government entities greater access to Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) funding in order to provide additional capital investments for affordable housing, homeless shelters and services along with small business assistance.
https://a22.asmdc.org/2021-legislation
AB 464 is focused on helping businesses impacted by the Pandemic AB 464 defines small business as “an independently owned and operated business that is not dominant in its field of operation, the principal office of which is located in California, the officers of which are domiciled in California, and together with affiliates, has 100 or fewer employees, and average annual gross receipts of $15 million or less over the previous three years, or is a manufacturer with 100 or fewer employees.” AB 464 specifies that an independently owned and operated business includes independently owned franchises.
Here’s my talk with Barbara Bobby Lopez, who worked to get AB 464 passed:
Even with that, Oakland’s elected officials, and the state representatives, have completely ignored establishing any directive to use AB 464. Meanwhile, iconic Oakland restaurants like Brown Sugar Kitchen, Luka’s Taproom, and many more, have closed because of the economic pressures caused by the Pandemic and their own policy of regulating but not helping small business while the COVID-19 threat remains.
Local Government Inaction In Oakland And Everywhere Harms The Biden Administration Agenda
The Biden Administration has to turn around and fast. First, it should make the SBA answer to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, so HUD can fast fix the PPP Loan problem by applying an economic development focus, adding money to help small businesses who can’t quickly recover losses created by how the PPP Loan was done. HUD also must form a menu of active state and local programs and immediately get aide and money and solutions to make those efforts work faster, now.
But locally, the Mayor of Oakland Libby Schaaf, the Oakland City Council, and State Representatives like Buffy Wicks, and National Reps like Congresswoman Barbara Lee need to make getting money to help people their primary, job one, daily focus. Biden can’t do it by himself. (As a related aside, Biden should impose price controls on food items to curb inflation pressures).
Stay tuned.