“From coronavirus shutdowns to government shutdowns, small businesses are pawns in the game in Washington, D.C.,” said Bruce de Torres, director of public affairs for the American Federation of Small Businesses.
De Torres said the government shutdown is directly hurting small businesses, and the U.S. economy is losing about $7 billion to $9 billion every week, and that number will increase as the situation continues.
Looking at the numbers, De Torres believes that each government shutdown will continue to cost the U.S. economy billions of dollars for weeks and even months until everything returns to normal. “There is no justification for this. Everyone should tell Congress and the White House to resolve this issue immediately.”
Airline unions and numerous labor unions have called on Democrats to sign a clean continuance resolution over the government shutdown, and hundreds of tourism businesses have now joined those demands to reopen the government.
According to an analysis by the American Federation of Small Businesses, the U.S. travel economy has already lost more than $4 billion due to the shutdown, and that loss is growing significantly with each passing day.
De Torres says political retribution and taxpayer subsidies have taken a backseat as bipartisanship has been found in Washington, D.C., in recent weeks. And last Tuesday’s election has now emboldened the extreme fringe, metastasizing this polarization in Congress and across the political landscape.
