Prairie State Wire

Peter Breen (R-Lombard), 48th District candidate for the Illinois House of Representatives, worries that small business owners across the state are being victimized all over again.

“When I see Democrats in Congress refusing to fully fund the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), I’m left speechless,” Breen, running against incumbent state Rep. Terra Costa-Howard (D-Glen Ellyn), told the Prairie State Wire. “Just that program alone has the potential to help keep our small businesses alive long enough to ride out this crisis. When you have a political party that cares so little for business that they would hold up that funding, it’s disgusting. The problem is I haven’t heard a single Democrat who has criticized their party leadership for stopping the flow of these funds.”

Breen says he desperately hopes that Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has plans of at least partially restarting the state’s economy by the May 1 date President Donald Trump has targeted for states across the U.S. The stay-at-home order that Pritzker originally enacted late last month, shuttering all businesses not deemed to be essential by the state, is slated to expire on April 30. 

While the governor has publicly indicated what his plans are going forward, he recently announced that the state has entered into a partnership with Indiana, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Minnesota to restart the region’s economy in a phased alliance. Breen argues that much of the focus should be on finding a way to keep small businesses afloat and operating in the absolute safest atmosphere possible.

“Not funding a program that is specifically designed to keep people working is outrageous,” Breen said. “I can’t imagine what reasons Democrats could offer for not feeling the same way. They agreed unanimously to establish the program. To start a program assuring small business owners they would be protected and to then rip the rug out from under them makes no sense. Now is not the time for partisan politics and I hope that every small business owner and their workers makes it a point of remembering this.”