WASHINGTON, D.C. — As Washington looks for ways to get cash into the hands of small businesses to keep their doors open and their workers employed, Ohio Senator Rob Portman applauded the efforts underway and urged his colleagues to keep pushing.
"I was pleased that Congress passed yesterday legislation that the president signed that helps to be able to ensure that we have the funding available to keep people who have to leave work to be able to make ends meet, make a car payment, make a mortgage, make a rent payment. The next package is going to be about trying to help keep this economy moving," Portman said.
"A lot of people are ending up on unemployment insurance in Ohio right now, we've seen about a 25 fold increase, that's about a 2500 percent increase in unemployment claims this week as compared to last week and last week was relatively high too so we're also helping to bolster that unemployment system and be sure that people have that safety net to rely on."
A key going forward he believes is removing the red tape that often holds up funds for those businesses seeking a needed loan.
"I think one of the positive aspects of what we're working on is for small companies in particular to be able to go to their bank, whatever it is, a community bank, a savings and loan, a small local neighborhood bank and just say we want to get a loan and then the federal government will step in and through the Small Business Administration and back up that loan," he said. "Because I think doing it through the government is going to take too long and be too complicated."
"The idea here John is we need to help these small businesses and these families, individuals weather this storm and then at the end of it do some things that help to get the economy moving."
Late Thursday Senate Republicans released their version of a massive stimulus plan. Their plan would deliver $1,200 per person, $2,400 per married couple with $500 extra per child. It would go towards those making $75,000 in adjusted gross income, that's your income before standardized and itemized deductions and tax credits.
It would be based on your 2018 tax return and phase out at a rate of $5 for every $100 you earned over $75,000 which means those who make over $99,000 would get nothing.
The Treasury Department released their own plan Wednesday that called for $300 billion to help small businesses, $50 billion for loans to the airline industry, $150 billion to prop up other sectors and $500 billion in direct payments to Americans to be distributed in two roughly $1,000 checks that will be sent out beginning April 6 and again beginning May 18.
"My sense is where we are right now is it would be roughly $1,000 per person, it might be more," Portman said. "And that would be cash that people would receive so it wouldn't be related to their 2019 tax return on their 2020 tax return it would just be a cash payment directly. This was done back in 2008 and I think for a lot of people it's necessary right now just t o make ends meet."
