“My focus is on dealing with the challenge that we have before us, making sure that our small businesses can survive, making sure families can put food on the table and be able to keep a roof over their head and making sure our health providers who are on the frontlines, get the equipment they need to treat folks who are suffering from COVID-19”
In case you missed it, Senator Gary Peters joined MSNBC yesterday to discuss his leadership in providing front line health care workers and Michigan families with the resources needed to ensure they are protected throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Senator Peters stressed the importance of finding common ground to deliver bipartisan solutions for small businesses and hospitals in need of relief.
As communities across the state continue to struggle in this crisis, Senator Peters has worked tirelessly to get results and put Michigan first.
The full interview can be viewed HERE.
- On Funding For Front Line Workers And Hospitals: So first and foremost, we know our hospitals are stressed and will continue to be stressed. So this is an appropriate time for us to kind of step back after the CARES Act passed, [assess] where are the needs and make sure that we’re funding those needs going forward.
- On Assisting Small Businesses and Health Care Professionals: We all agree and I certainly agree that small businesses need to be helped. It’s the engine of growth for our economy. And as we’re going to restart our economy, it’s critical that our small businesses can be there and can survive for this very difficult time. But we also have to make sure our health care providers have the resources they need, we need to make sure we have personal protection equipment so that we can provide that to all of our health care professionals, as well as testing, certainly that’s something that we continue to lag behind. We’ve got to make sure we have resources to aggressively expand testing across the country. And it’s particularly needed here in Michigan as we continue to be a hotspot.
- On Small Business Loan Funding: We hope we can come together in a bipartisan way as we did for the CARES act. That went through folks found common ground, we were able to pass it unanimously. I would hope that that’s what we do in this case as well. This should not be a time for political posturing or scoring political points. This is about coming together to decide how do we deal with this crisis as it continues to unfold literally on a daily basis and we know that there are other needs. Let’s try to take care of those needs. So while we’re dealing with the Small Business issue, I think many of us also want to make sure that the small businesses that are most in need are actually getting this money. So I think it’s important for us to be focused on that as well.
- On Fighting For Michiganders: Clearly, we needed to be producing more personal protection equipment, we needed to have a testing regime that was much more robust than what we had. There are going to be a lot of lessons learned when we get through this. But right now, my focus is on dealing with the challenge that we have before us, making sure that our small businesses can survive, making sure families can put food on the table and be able to keep a roof over their head and making sure our health providers who are on the frontlines, get the equipment they need to treat folks who are suffering from COVID-19. So right now my focus is on challenges today and what we need to do going forward.
