The beginning of May marks the start of Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month — honoring and celebrating the remarkable achievements of the over 17 million Asian Americans living in the United States. For decades, Asian American small businesses have been the backbone of many immigrant communities.
There are nearly 2 million Asian-owned small businesses that employ over 3.5 million people. Like so many small businesses, Asian-owned companies are struggling from the government-imposed shutdowns put in place because of the coronavirus. Fortunately, President Trump and congressional Republicans are working overtime to help these businesses.
The cornerstone of the congressional small business rescue is the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The PPP provides low interest loans to small businesses to help them retain their workforce. The loans can ultimately be forgiven so long as 75 percent goes towards payroll and the remainder is used from qualifying expenses like utilities, rent and mortgage payments.
The first tranche of funding helped nearly 1.6 million businesses – undoubtedly many owned by Asian Americans — and is credited with saving 30 million jobs. Lisa Song Sutton, a Korean American entrepreneur and candidate for Nevada’s 4th Congressional District, confirmed, “pro-business policies, including emergency programs like PPP, help us to survive unprecedented, ordered shutdowns by our state” and added “We can’t wait to fully reopen and fully serve our customers once again.”
Congress appropriated $349 billion for the PPP in late March. Due to overwhelming demand, however, the program was quickly depleted. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell moved quickly to replenish the funds. Sadly, Senate Democrats – at the behest of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – blocked the additional funding for over two weeks. Under intense pressure, Pelosi finally gave in and allowed an additional $300 billion in PPP funding.
During the weeks Speaker Pelosi and House Democrats were holding small business owners and their employees’ hostage, Pelosi underwent a stunning transformation on President Trump’s China travel ban. President Trump wisely shut down travel to and from China in late January, even when a chorus of Democrats, including Pelosi, called the move xenophobic.
Pelosi’s full 180 was complete when she suggested that the President’s travel ban did not go far enough. Saying “if you’re going to shut the door because you have an evaluation of an epidemic, then shut the door.” Pelosi’s shut-the-door policy would have abandoned tens of thousands of American citizens, including many Asian Americans, in China.
Ironically, Speaker Pelosi made these comments after months of claiming any mention of the factually accurate name of the coronavirus – the Wuhan Virus or the China Virus – was racist. This was, of course, a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) talking point that the Beijing-centric World Health Organization was all too willing to parrot. Unsurprisingly, Democrats and establishment media organizations – all too eager to cast blame on President Trump – also blindly pushed communist propaganda touting the effectiveness of the CCP’s response to the pandemic. Despite this criticism, the President continued to voice his strong support for the Asian American community.
For many Asian Americans – especially those that escaped brutal regimes in Cambodia, Vietnam and China – communist propaganda and policies are not just a talking point, but a stark reminder of oppressive regimes they fled. Fiat by fear, invasive government overreach and mandated lockdowns were reasons to escape these countries during the Cold War. For them the United States has been a place of opportunity and freedom, defined by a rejection of the socialist policies of their former countries.
The economic lockdowns from the 2020 coronavirus will soon come to end and business will begin to reopen. The Pelosi Democrats in the House of Representatives will use this crisis to push for bigger government and ultimately less freedom stifling entrepreneurial opportunity and innovation.
Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, Asian Americans were experiencing the greatest economic boom in history thanks to less regulation and lower taxes. President Trump built the greatest economy in the world and he has pledged to “do it a second time too.” With the 2020 election on the horizon, there is a stark choice for Asian Americans between the economic opportunity they have come to embrace and the socialism they narrowly escaped.
Surya Gunasekara is a Sri Lankan American small-business owner and a member of the U.S.-Asia Institute Congressional Circle. He previously served as chief of staff and tax counsel to former Rep. Jim Renacci, R-Ohio.