As the emergency funds for small businesses in the United States was running out Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shared a tone-deaf video of herself at her home in San Francisco giddily showing off her freezer full of ice cream and mooning for the cameras.
Democrats held up a clean bill in the Senate to add more funds to the Paycheck Protection Program, last week.
The program was set up to bring relief to small businesses suffering huge financial losses due to COVID-19 stay at home policies.
According to Fox Business, the money is expected to run out as early as Wednesday afternoon.
Both Democrats and Republicans want to add $250 billion to the small-business aid program, but have been sparring for days over whether to add restrictions to the funds. Democrats want to expand access to the loans as well as include more money for hospitals, food assistance and state and local governments. Republicans, meanwhile, said they want to keep the bill focused on increasing small-business aid and defer other funding debates until the next, broader legislation is crafted.
NEW: SBA expects to run out of money for emergency coronavirus loans for small businesses imminently—*this afternoon,* sources tell me. The $349 billion in the PPP program is meant to help cover payroll.
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) April 15, 2020
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s office told lawmakers on Monday that the House will not be in session until at least May 4 unless it needs to pass emergency legislation related to the coronavirus pandemic.
In a joint statement Monday morning, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer reiterated their demands from last week’s proposal.
“We have real problems facing this country, and it’s time for the Republicans to quit the political posturing by proposing bills they know will not pass either chamber and get serious and work with us towards a solution,” they said.
Republicans refused to back down over the weekend. In a joint statement Saturday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said they ”reject Democrats’ reckless threat to continue blocking job-saving funding unless we renegotiate unrelated programs which are not in similar peril.”
As the money was running out, Pelosi proudly shared a video showcasing her very expensive freezer full of ice cream and a fancy basket full of chocolate.
“Other people in our family go for some other flavors, but chocolate, and then we have some other chocolate here,” Pelosi said, showing off the multiple pints of ice-cream in her freezer.
Pelosi told the “Late, Late Show” host James Corden that while in quarantine, she was eating as much candy and chocolate as possible.
“I enjoy it,” she explained. “I like it better than anything else.”
She said she had her fridge recently stocked for Easter.
“I don’t know what I would have done if ice-cream hadn’t been invented,” she gushed.
We all have found our ways to keep our spirits up during these trying times. Mine just happens to fill up my freezer. #LateLateShow pic.twitter.com/dqA32d5lU1
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) April 14, 2020
Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden showed his approval of Pelosi’s well stocked fridge on Twitter:
You have great taste, @SpeakerPelosi. https://t.co/96cJJaBHFW
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) April 14, 2020
GOP Rapid Response Director Steve Guest was not impressed:
“While Nancy Pelosi sits in her ivory tower in San Francisco, eating $13 dollar a pint ice cream out of her $24,000 fridge, she is cheering on Democrats for blocking coronavirus relief aid that has so far been distributed to 1.3 million small businesses that is about to run out,” Guest Tweeted
Pelosi told reporters last Thursday that the new funds for small businesses must include guardrails to help vulnerable populations.
“I don’t have any intention of spending any one second of Sunday trying to convince anybody that it is necessary to address the needs of everyone in our society,” she said.
“If they don’t know that, if we don’t share that value, they’re not going to get it on Easter Sunday, or Passover, or Ramadan,” Pelosi added. “It’s self evident that we should be doing this.”