Joined democratic congressman dwight evans for a discussion on reopening the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. Other participants included a local business owner, an essential worker, and a leader of a community center. This is about an hour and a half. Out an hour and a half. How are you doing . Thanks. Hello. As a reminder, this event adheres to social distancing guidelines. Restrictions, there will not be individual photos today. Thank you. Frmr vp biden that is assuming you would want one. Thank you, Vice President , the third here in Congressional District in one of the most fantastic places in the city and the state. You will seeally today and hear from all of these fantastic people some great stories. The residents of West Philadelphia, where we are, they things, andntastic this is a great opportunity. Tiffany, dont be bashful, the Vice President invites you, it is your chance to speak your mind. Tell me what you were telling me in the back room. How are you . I am the owner of a fullservice optical store in West Philadelphia as well as having my business in West Philadelphia, i am a resident. We have been in operations for three and a half years now. I have a lot of ideas of what should happen in West Philadelphia. Frmr vp biden i am looking forward to hearing them. Tamika also was on the front worker inhe essential what she does. She is in a very proud union that does a lot for the city and this country. I had an opportunity just listening to tamikas story. Why dont you tell the Vice President . I am a social worker. I worked on 15th street. I also live in west philly. To find out what can be done differently. So things dont happen the way they are happening now. Vice president , here is someone, we have known each other, i will not say how many years, but we have known each other a lot. In addition to talking about the enterprise center, i would like her to give you history of this location so the Vice President has a feel. Dancep biden i can never well. [laughter] you are sitting in the birthplace of american dance. This was the first building built in our country as a television station that at that time, he owned the Philadelphia Inquirer and the letters for the radio, dick clark used to stand in front of that mural, this is where the bleachers used to be. This was the dance floor. My last name happened to be clark. Frmr vp biden you are kidding. I took a picture around this building and said he was my first husband. This was before integration. I ended up with the building. I am pleased to tell you we have been in this room 23 years. When we moved in 23 years ago we opened up our door without any debt because i was able to convince the federal government, the state, the city, we could not afford to open our doors because we knew we could not financially induced we could not have minority entrepreneurs. The organization is 30 years old. I have been here 28 years of the 30 years. Frmr vp biden you have done a heckuva job. I knew when i walked into the enterprise center, i was standing here until my job is done. I will give you some orders before i leave. [laughter] frmr vp biden i dont have any doubt about that. I dont have any doubt. To talk about the plan . All,vp biden first of thank you well. Do we have copies ok. The National Bureau of labor statistics points out there is 3. 3 million Business Owners that shut their doors since february. God willing, allowable open up 41 ofbut africanamerican businesses shut their doors. Businesses. 19 white businesses. Aboutmay have forgotten coronavirus, but it has not forgotten about us. We have 20 million unemployed, you know that. The failure to respond to the pandemic, i think, the federal thernment has advocated, white house at least, has abdicated that role. , and with ising his inability to focus on any federal responsibility, saying, i take no responsibility, its not my problem. One what i have laid out here for you is the outlines of a major a much Larger Initiative that i elected, that we are going to be able to do. To give guidance. Better guidance than we have been able to give. What i talk about here is, trump has basically had a one point plan. Open businesses. To keepoes nothing workers safe and keep businesses able to stay open. Secondly, it has done very little to generate consumer confidence. A lot of businesses that are ready to open also find the customers are not coming. They do not have confidence they are ready and safe. I lay out here, and i dont want y, how i think we should approach it. What responsibility i think the federal government has to begin ofdeal with us getting out this dark hole we are in. The first one we have been saying for a long time. You have to guarantee testing and you have to guarantee the availability of personal protective equipment. For anybody called back on the job, period. It has component parts. Direct the federal government to provide regular and reliable covid19 tests for every worker called back to work. That should be able to be tested and paid for by the federal government. Will payal government for all the testing. Make it available that we have rapid results and for the duration of this crisis, be able to continue to do that. Secondly, ensure all workers and all communities have access to effective personal protective equipment. We already know we dont have it if there is another bounce back. We dont have equipment ready see statesxt you theyre showing an increase in hospitalizations. Sure. Ve to make we may have access to personal protective equipment across the board. No worker should be forced to give up benefits and returned to work in unsafe conditions unless they have protective care. We third part of that is have to ensure workers and unions have a voice in reopening plans. Hese decisions i have a detailed plan. We have to be able i think we should establish and i will establish what we call a , notmic testing board unlike what roosevelt did during the depression. To surge testing nationwide and rampup distribution of ppe. The federal government has not taken responsibility for where that equipment goes. I think dwight joined me, i joined dwight three months ago saying we should have a Central Commander like all military equipment, there is supply officer. Need the same kind of supply officer nationally to know where the need is and what equipment is needed and how to get it. Parenthetically, what i think we should be doing right now is, were i in office, i would be taking 25 billion, putting a vaccine czar in charge when we get this vaccine, how will it be distributed . Where will it go . How will we guarantee it will be able to be distributed to all americans . The same thing is going to happen, if god willing we get a vaccine. Maybe even in the fall. I doubt it. Probably beginning of next year. Where does it go . We are going to be facing the same kind of dilemma. Howdoes it get to whom, and does it not get the way in which all of this legislation you have passed, most of the help went to the very wealthy. Went to the corporations. Went to the people who hang out at maralago. And did not get where it was designed to get. 40 of the money for Small Businesses, only 40 got there. And it got there in a way im sure you can talk about. That is the first part of this. I think we have to guarantee paid leave, federal paid leave,. Or anyone who gets sick they should not have to choose between their paycheck and their health. What i would do, i havent laid would ensurethat i paid leave for all workers who get sick from covid. For as long as they need to recover and have a complete quarantine. Caring foranteein family members who have covid. They should be able to be off and not have to work. Worker also ensure protection and accountability. You, i knowome of anybody involved with labor knows about the Occupational Safety and health administration. They should be sending down rigorous standards for the context in which it is safe to inpen and how you reopen terms of not just social distancing, but for example, meatpacking plants, slowing down the line. Making sure there are plastic dividers. That is the job of Occupational Health safety. They should be doing that across the board to give advice to Small Businesses how they can and should open. Now, we have to be in a position where there is rigorous standards protection for all the workers who go back. Cover, for example we do not cover a lot of Public Employees directing other agencies. Everyone should be covered by this. We are ordinarily covered by the period of this crisis. Finese to pursue tough for larger businesses that do not abide by these. I am beginning to get bored by my own talk here. Why dont i, instead of going through this, why dont we talk about give me your sense of what you worry most about going to work, opening, and having to close, why you closed and opened your business, and what you think Small Businesses need the melt the most help in. I will talk about contact tracing, protecting Older Americans, theres things we can do. Assistanceechnical to Small Businesses from accounting capabilities, lawyers, things to have access to when they are needed out there. We should have, for example, a safer Shopper Program. A business abides by all the rules that are set out to enhance the probability someone can walk in safely and everything is being met. They should be able to get a certificate. Put it on the window of the business. Precautionsken all that are rational and necessary to protect the safety of the customer. Theres a lot of other things we can do. Why dont you talk to me about what is on your mind, what worries you most about your business, what worries you about thank youing to for your national endorsement. We should be, for example, having the circumstance where if we have the whole idea of the thing congress did in terms of the care act was to keep people employed. I suggest we have not just an unemployment system, but employment system. Insurance. If you have 25 workers and you have enough work for 12, you pay them on the roll, you them half pay and the federal government makes up the rest so you are able to keep the workforce in place throughout the time. The whole idea is once you are laid off, once you leave, the longer you are out, the harder it is to be reemployed later on. Especially if in fact you are a minority. Re rather than me going through everything i think we should be doing, tell me what if i were if i had a magic wand, what is the thing you would most want me to be able to do to help deal with your business, your safety, and what you think we should be doing to help maintain access. Especially for minority businesses. You heard what the Vice President said to you, we said in the back room, this is your chance. You said that magic wand. In regards to the pandemic, being a Small Business and having to open because the longer we stay closed, i dont make any money. They are more afraid. To come back and contract the virus. What do i do when i dont have ppe . I cant open my store at 100 capacity because by myself, i cannot Service Everyone fairly and give them the service they deserve. I cannot fire my employees because that is my team. I appreciate them and understand what is going on. I dont have any more funds to be able to pay them to stay out and i cant work at full income to runve my business the way i should. If you had a magic wand and if it was up to you and you were in a place to do so, to make it easier for Small Businesses like mine, not Small Businesses like maybe i shouldnt say names, but but the larger corporations that are considered Small Businesses, to make it easier for Small Businesses that have anywhere between 20 and less employees. Have access to capital, to have access to Government Funds to help you to continue to pay your employees. Frmr vp biden let me ask you a question. How many employees do you have . Six. Frmr vp biden you have three outlets . I have two, i had to close one. The one i had to close was three employees. Frmr vp biden what is the overhead beyond salary . It doesnt have to be a number. Did you have enough money for rent or improvements you needed to make to cope with covid, to be able absolutely not. Frmr vp biden did you seek help getting grants to do that . I did. Frmr vp biden what happened . I was able to get a grant. Was able to get a loan i was able to get a grant from the merchant fund. They were small grants. I know it had to be spread around. I was lucky enough to get those grants. They were gone within a day because my bills exceed what i got. This congress has been talking about the new act they passed, Senate Republicans are holding out. Whether or not you are able to loan forjust a overhead, but a grant, if you are keeping people employed, you get significantly more money to be able to deal with overhead costs. That is everything from electricity to heating, airconditioning, opening doors, whatever. That is not a loan. That would be a grant. One of the things i propose here is we dont have very much information from a medical standpoint on what the impact of covid is from a parent to a child or newborn. I propose we spend a fair amount of money and research focusing now, providing research now, zeroing inocuses on on what is the impact, what are the impacts, on Young Children of parents who are you may be exposed to covid. They are scared to death, as you said. The last thing i want to do is go to work, i could be someone who is not showing signs of having covid. Thats why the testing is so important for people coming back to work as well. The notion of whether or not youre going to be able to restart a small things thate of the i have indicated before is too much of the money in these programs has gone to big business. Most people dont think 500 employees is a Small Business. Yoursin businesses like that have fewer than 50 employees, some as low as 10, they are the ones getting crushed right now. Also thee have to have Technical Assistance to be able to provide Small Businesses like yours with the ability to have access to accountants and lawyers and others, how you , take how you qualify full advantage of what is out there that is not being taken advantage now. I really think one of the things we have to think about is testing and tracing. That also is going to take a lot of pressure off employees coming back to work to know when they go home they are going to not be taken home to their families, if they are taking care of an elderly mom or they have a sixmonthold baby. Allequires also to have protective gear and the safety circumstances required. Every business is slightly different. Tell me about your business. Tell me about dealing with eyewear. Do you do testing . We do. We are fullservice. I have up to optometrists i have optometrists and it was tough to get them to come back. We did follow cdc guidelines. Because they work closely with closely, and we work with the patients, we have to be in close proximity. We do try to take temperatures. We do require everyone to wear a mask. We have hand sanitizer. Those things are running out and it is hard to get. When i need hand sanitizer, now. m going to the store an eight ounce bottle is 15. I need 10 bottles to last the month. Supply for my patients or my customers that come in. Frmr vp biden i think that should be covered by the federal government. I think it should be, too. Frmr vp biden but im serious. The way the law was written, it was intended to be able to be covered. What happens is people do not know enough to know what it is they could qualify for and what they missed. When people are coming to the center, when their businesses are in trouble, what do you tell them . What is the most frequent thing you get asked . Capital. I want to make one point. Shes one of our clients. Example of anood entrepreneur working in what i would call the old economy. We are facing an economic reset. Theres going to be a new economy. Someone like tiffany who requires a strategy of somebody coming in her door to get glasses, we had this conversation, she now needs to pivot to build a Technology Infrastructure for a for ecommerce. I can center my prescription, i can look online, and she can still generate revenue while we continue to figure out this covid19 pandemic and ppe. She does not have the dollars to invest in that Technology Platform that she needs in order to be ready for this new economy. Going back to your questions and my response around capital, right, if you were driving to this building here, you entered into a distressed community. Orders, because i am bossy, is that as you look at these distressed communities, i would like for you to change your lenses and look at them from the standpoint, how do i we my influence and how do . Ay those strategically one of the biggest things is under supply of capital. See tiffany to become a multimillionaire, ok . Capital as a the Service Provider to invest in her. We dont want to be dead to lenders. Lenders. O be debt we want to be equity investors. All we can do is make her alone. What we are doing is stacking on more debt. It puts her in a position where she is a risk manager versus a growth manager. Frmr vp biden i got that. Thats why this is not the totality of what i have done. I will double the amount for sba and Small Business loans and cut Interest Rates on it. You know this stuff. You have another one, too. What i was trying to get at is the immediate concern of this moment. I see this in two phases. How do we deal, with the stimuli to keep the economy from completely collapsing . How do we reinvest in the future . How do we bring people to a different place . That require significant investment. I call for over a trillion dollars in increased spending by the federal government on infrastructure, including giving everything from housing to a whole range of things. Addition, we should be moving in the direction that look, i am the guy that managed the 830 billion in our administration the recovery act. Than 0. 2 was waste or fraud. It requires a National Coordination and it requires to fancy word in congress is there should be someone who is able to look into all this. Somebody who follows this every single day that is independent of the president , independent of congress. This president has fired every Inspector General. The first thing im going to do as president of the United States is higher an Inspector General to look at the entire 2 trillion you guys appropriated and spent time with a fine tooth come over who got it, a fine or gocomb over who got it after them for violations of the law if they violated it. That includes a whole range. We have to build a new economy. One of the things that is going to be necessary is for you to be in a position to be able to, right now, if you just had the ability to do more telemarketing than you do right now. I dont know if you have that capacity. What im talking about is the immediate need to keep bread on the table, to keep people employed, so that when the ,conomy does begin to come back i will send you a 60 page copy of what i am proposing, is that people are still alive. People are still we have not broken up more families. We have not people put people in a position where they are in debt so long they can never get out. We have not put people in a position where they have given up and become very depressed. One of the things we are going to have to do is increase access to mental health. Significantly. There is a whole range of those things, but in the meantime, what we should be able to do is make sure that everybody has access to housing. Frmr vp biden the same home was valued at because of the prejudice that exists. Itwould be excuse me would be 154 billion dollars more wealth among africanamerican Communities Just by the valuation of poems, so there is a whole range of those things. What i am trying to figure out is how we keep people from drowning at the moment, at this moment, for example, if you are if we are going to go back to work for example, there are no standards. How we send kids back to school or dare care. None at all. Daycare. None at all. We have to lay that out now. I think every single solitary person out there who has a child should have child care. I think every single paid for by the federal government if they dont have the income. I was just discussing with a friend of mine that even my job, they are calling people back, but they are calling them on the friday to work monday. What are they going to do with their kids now . Who is going to watch their kids . Who can afford to pay childcare at this moment if they had someone to watch the kids . Frmr vp biden those are the things i think we have to put in survivew to get us to through this, to get people so they all are not drowning, so we do not end up in despair and loss, but most of all, we are going to have spent probably by january, close to you know, 3 peoplen to try to save from total bankruptcy or save people from absolutely having nothing to be able to ride for themselves or their families. How do we get that done . Then, we are going to come in with the real, genuine what we call, you know, rebuilding, the change for the 21st century. For example, schooling. That iding out have been trying to get a 200 billion pass to be able to provide for highspeed internet for the entire country. Guess what . A lot of people dont have it, a significant number, particularly in rule areas rural areas. Even urban areas, homeschooling, how does that work if you dont have a computer . What are we going to do about that . We are going to find people further and further and further behind. And so, from my standpoint, the way i look at this is kind of in two phases. How do we keep people from falling off a cliff completely, keep them on dry land up there, number one, and have them be able to move forward . And then how do we move them into a completely different circumstance from where they were before . Chance to make significant institutional changes. We are one of the only civilized countries in the world i misspoke industrialized countries in the world that does not have child care, that does not have paid leave, that does not have all these things that people are that affect their daily, daily lives. And so, theres a lot of institutional changes that we can and will make, and we laid them out. For example, the proposal i put forward. I am not going to bore you. It does not affect your daytoday operation right now. But the proposal i put forward, every expert who looked at it said it will create at least 10 million new jobs, 10 million new and highpaying jobs. Not six dollars an hour, eight dollars an hour, not even 15 an hour, but 48 an hour or 50 an hour. 550,000install over charging stations on every new highway. We will own electric vehicle market. Why shouldnt that not bs . That will be us . That should not affect your eyeglass market. Theres a whole range of things. What i am trying to find out today is how do we build for example, everyone has been saying, all the experts have been saying from the beginning that you have to test and trace. You see what has happened when you do not trace, you see how it has gone how the coronavirus is escalating and states now. Ok . Not all states, but at least 12 states are escalating, and probably going into the winter, its going to probably get worse. So what are we doing . Well, theres a lot of people who are unemployed now, particularly young people. What i am proposing that we do is we have a nationwide disease surveillance system. We need to hire 100,000 people tracers from communities, pay them a decent wage to be the ones to go out and trace when they find a new covert case. That is the only thing we know. The only thing before vaccine that will make a difference, that will keep things down. But we can do that. For example but permanently, i think we need an entire new Public Health core out there. We need to be able to provide for significantly greater care across the board in terms of Public Health. Create millions of jobs across the country. But my point is that what do you do right now to ensure that there is worker protections, theres accountability, and as openopen, we responsibility and put you in a position where responsibly and put you in a position where you are guaranteed to be safe for, tracing, and the circumstances, protective gear, and protective circumstances you work in exist. And how are you going to be in a toition now to be able reopen and be able to do what needs to be done to provide for what you do . Finding out we are that a lot of optometrists are in trouble right now because people dont want to go in and put their eye up against that glass and have someone looking close to them, and they are worried. What can you do about that . There are things that can be done to increase the diminished significance and likelihood that you are going to be spreading the disease. Because even if everything works and you have everything available, for example, what your instinct how many customers come in. Tomorrow, you will be able to say you had no financial problems. You can have everybody back to work. The same traffic you had before . Definitely not. Frmr vp biden that is my point. This is why wanted to talk bread and butter about nvidia things that can be done. Debtif she had no overhang, even if none of her employees had children back home. People are not going to come in. So what enables that . They are not going to come in. What you can do, and you are right about nearterm, you can begin to be able to get help in terms of how you have a business where you can go online and say send me your prescription. I can have it filled. This is how we will do it. We will fill the prescription. We will in fact be able to do that. We have a new prescription. We can do a lot of telemedicine that way. Do first thing we have to is, like for example, the idea that you get called back on a friday, theres no one available on a saturday, sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday, friday next week to take care of a child. How do we get that done . That is why i propose a significant childcare capacity that we have to build. That we should build now and the government should be paying for as long as this crisis exists. The ink of all the people who do not ask for testing. They are afraid to get tests even if it is available for them because of the cost. And they haveck to acknowledge they are sick and quarantined for the days that they are sick, while they are the cost of hospitalization. The president of the United States is trying to do away with the only Health Care Policies that are out there. You have millions of businesses, major businesses that have gone out of business where you in t you lose your ability they have gone out of business, big ones where they provide health insurance. What do you have . You have been paying half that program. I think under the existing law now, i think the federal government should pay the other half as long as this exists and you can maintain your privately held insurance. The generic point i am trying to make here is, and this is kind of theres so much out there. You aow do we enable surety to be able to go back to work and feel safe yourself . Number one. Be able to ensure that your employees are physically safe. A sign on theave door that customers say i can go into that business and i know i will be protected because they have done everything that has been said that needs to be done in order to enhance the prospect that whatever i get in that store or facility, i am going to get in a way that is not totally dissimilar like it was before the covid hit. , you know, we need to be able to guarantee that we federal really federally fund paid leave for workers, that all workers to get sick from covid, for as long as they need, that they are going to their costs are going to be paid for by the federal government. We need all the things that needs to be done to make sure that you are safe and your employees are safe and your customers are safe. In the meantime, it is pay for by the federal government. He should not have to borrow that money. This is a crisis. This is an International Health crisis. If we do not do that, it is going to cost the government a lot more down the road. Businesseseep these open. What happens . I have an idea. Frmr vp biden sure. Industrieshe largest for minority businesses is in janitorial. If we think about getting people back to work, many buildings like this are accustomed to regular cleaning. Now, you have to do a higher level, which is called sanitizing. In pennsylvania, a group of minority and business and city leaders have come together and covid task force. We have been thinking about how we help them get their certifications and licenses for this higher level of cleaning. Vice president , it is a way we can get people to work right now because every restaurant, every business, can put an emblem and say this business was cleaned and sanitized. Frmr vp biden exactly, and that should be paid for by the federal government. That is part of my proposal. That is part of my proposal. The whole idea is how do you change the circumstances where when the press and all of us leave here, we would feel confident to walk into a building . Look, we talk about essential suchrs, so we give them credit. Pans together. We do the rest of it i dont want to clap for them. I want to pay them. Pay them a living wage to do what they do because a lot of them are losing their lives. They are going in and sanitizing that operating room afterwards. It exposes you. The fact that you do not have all the protective equipment, these Janitorial Services do not have, they should be able to get that because they are doing a Public Service in addition to being able to get paid. And again, there goes that big spending democrat again, spending all that money. If we do not do this, we are going to be in deep, deep, and deeper trouble economically. When we learned about the coronavirus at the same time as countries like germany and south korea and others found out, why are we in terms of on a percentage basis, why is our unemployment so much higher . Why is our death rates are much higher . Many casesave so that have been diagnosed so far . Significantly higher . Obviously, we have a larger population, but a significantly higher percent of people in the United States who contracted covid, significantly higher percentage based on the populations that have died. Why . Because the federal government this administration this administration did nothing. They did nothing. The study at Columbia University points out that the president acted just two weeks earlier. 54,000 more people would be alive today. Alive today. Today. And so, that is why we cannot waste any more time. Imagine the impact on the economy. Just think of it in terms of numbers. 54,000 people were still alive. That i think we have to create this Public Health job score. President , i think the wall street journal said 80 of americans think that the country is out of control, so ofn you say about the soul america, and you are in the ,istrict in West Philadelphia these are fantastic people. They are very passionate, and they feel like who is talking to them can you talk a little bit connected, because at least for me, when you talk about the soul of america, talk a little bit about that in context of what you are saying. Frmr vp biden well, look. You know, i know west philly a little bit. Not a lot. The only reason i know it a little bit, as i have granddaughters and grandkids who went to school here and lived up in, you know, 59th street. Anyway. Dont know it know well. Dont mean to imply i know it. But i do know the eastside of wilmington, delaware, really, really well. I do know my state has the eighth largest africanamerican population in the united dates of america. Ok . My city is well over 50 africanamerican. That is where i come out of. I know it. Here is the point about the soul of america. This president , from the very heinning, from the moment came down that escalator in his golden building, what he started off saying i am going to see that we get rid of all those mexican rapists. Secondly, he decided he was going to pit us against one another based on race. When you saw those people in charlottesville coming out of the fields carrying those ns bulgingheir vei and shrieking antisemitic hate and bile, same as you same phrases used in nazi germany said this is why we nazi germany, the grand wizard said this is why we elected him. Weremmented and said there very fine people on both sides. No president in the history of the United States of america has ever said anything remotely like that. So what i have learned coming out of the movement much, much earlier as a kid is you think you can defeat eight. You can only make it hate. When you give it oxygen, and when the president speaks, no matter how good or bad he is, people listen. And when he speaks and gives credibility to these racist excuse my language folks out there. They come out from under the rocks. And you are seeing it. You are seeing it all across the country. As a consequence of that, what happens . We then pile on top of that a triple whammy. And then we end up with covid. And remember, i am the guy who asked for the cdc to keep detailed reports on exactly who basedcts it, exactly who on ethnicity, race, national origin, etc. , and how many die. Because a friend of mine, the mayor in detroit told me what was really happening in detroit, were people who were in fact people of color. Well guess what . Why is that happening . Because lack of access. And so, this is something that i it,k and then on top of the floyd family. George gets brutally murdered for the whole world to see it. You have never seen i was a kid when dr. King i came back from law school when dr. King was assassinated. And i came back my city is the only city in america occupied by the National Guard since reconstruction because of significant ocean was burned to the ground. From aback out of a job Good Law Firm and i quit and became a public defender. But even dr. Kings assassination did not have the worldwide impact that George Floyds death did. Because just Like Television changed the Civil Rights Movement for the better when they saw connor and his dogs ripping the clothes off of elderly black women going to church and fire hoses ripping the skin off of young kids. All those folks around the country who did not have any black populations heard about this. They did not believe it, but they saw it. It was impossible to close our eyes. When george floyd happened now you got how many people around the country . Millions of cell phones. It has changed the way everybody is looking at this. Look at the millions of people marching around the world. The world so my point is that i think people are really realizing that this is a battle for the soul of america. Who are we . What do we want to be . How do we see ourselves . What do we think we should be . Character is on the ballot here. That is what this is about. That is why i am convinced that we have with rational proposals, that cost a lot of money, the American Public is ready to step up. They understand the need to make these systemic changes, dealing from racism to structures that economy has stacked the deck against anybody who does not have any money. So for me, i think it is important that we lay out what isnt happening, who is negatively it is negatively affecting, and why it is a continuation of the systemic problem that we have. By the way, the Unemployment Rate among is higher than among blacks. They are both ridiculously high. But what do we talk about . Well, we have got to take the blinders off the american people. They are looking at it and saying we have to do something and this is not who we are. This is not the world i want my kid growing up even if they are uppermiddleclass folks. This is not the world i want my kids growing up in. We have a chance. I think it is important to lay out ahead of time what are the things that will most affect your collective ability to be around, have jobs, and have the capacity to grow when we get this under control. And that takes you to the thought about wealth. That is why every single firsttime homebuyer, i provide for a 15,000 down payment, period. Period. That is why i make sure that we double the amount of money that goes from the federal government to Small Business Business Operations in every state from to trillion 1. 5 trillion 3 trillion. It should be 3 billion. Taking off the sidelines about 60 billion. That is what we will do. That is all about people being able to get the kind of loans and or guarantees that they need to be able to move. We have to start educating people that the evidence is that lack entrepreneurs are equally successful as any other group of entrepreneurs. Their success rate is as high or as good. But we have got to provide the mechanisms. I guess, as i said, maybe this say,st too wonky, as we too much detail about how to get there, but we have to do in my view we have to create a testing and personal protective gear right off the bat for businesses that they do not have to pay for so they can in fact move forward. Secondly, we have to go out there and make sure we are in a situation where we guarantee paid leave for anybody who has to be cannot show up because they have somebody suffering from the disease and or they have to be quarantined. Thirdly, it seems to me we have to go out there and make sure we are in a position where we ensure workers have the protection and theres accountability for those companies that do not provide that protection. That should get in the whole idea of what the standards will be set up by osha and how we are going to make sure they are kept. We have to build a National Contact tracing reports that has the benefit of putting 100,000 people to work now to get paid in excess of 15 an hour just through the tracking by the federal government. That is a thing that is going to pull things under control. And i think we also have to protect Older Americans and those with disabilities. And you know, require big employers to tailor work requirements to their needs. Create this, i think, safer Shopper Program because no matter how good you do, most people are confident they can walk in and be ok, they are not going to walk in your door, and then we have to restart Small Businesses. We have to do it in a big way. And that deals with everything from allowing you to be able to get grants for fixed costs in addition to keeping people employed. We have to make sure we grant businesses the cost of restarting in this challenging environment. And we have to reopen our schools and our childcare programs. But there is no guidance. There is no guidance out there for how you do that. No guidance. Know and iyou think this is a reflection. If we do not do this, it does reflect the lack of a soul because so many people, so many people, are in trouble right now. And they are getting virtually no guidance from the white house. Just going to open up. Juneteenth,down on right, the first major massacre, literally speaking, of a black wall street, right . Years ago. And he is going to have a rally. He is going to have a rally. And he does not wear a mask and he does not think i mean, come on. In the meantime, this is not your problem. But it is going to be your consequence. He is also doing enormous damage to us internationally. You walk away from any cooperation with the world health organization, we walk away from any cooperation of vaccines. What worries me the most, i see nothing that is being done to the experts and scientists are telling us is likely to be a balance back bounce back. We already had the cdc saying they do not have enough protective gear stockpiled now for what is happening. Youve got 12 states i am praying that this is an aberration. I dont think so. I meet with almost four days a week i have one hour to 1. 5 hours briefing with the former head of the fda and the health staff. They are worried. They are worried about what is coming back. And again, what we said from the beginning. You have got to have testing and tracing. You have got to have all the protective gear necessary. And you have got to have it , just as a bare minimum to start. But i also think that what we should be doing is giving you and other businesses the ability to say this is the circumstance in which you can reopen safely. These are the things that have to be done in order to do that. We will pay you to help you do that because it is in the National Interest to do that. You will be able not only to be able to have money to keep people employed but to provide for overhead and infrastructure that you need. In order to be able to get because i think what you said, tiffany, is you have been completely honest with me. Even if tomorrow you had no restrictions and you open up completely, who is going to show up . And you are right. We have gone to prepare the way, begin to prepare the way for the 21st century here. We are well into it. We have got to prepare the way we are going to come back. How we are going to come back and make sure that we are able to deal with what is not just the pandemic. Willing, we will have a vaccine. But you know, what happens is how can you better how can we better impact on your bottom line and the number of people you have employed . By, for example, having the equivalent of telemedicine . You being able to be online . You being able to have the ability and getting the Technical Expertise to tell you how you do that . And that should be a federal government responsibility as well. Because again, it is all about having business be able to be open and employ people to generate economic growth, and i have not even gotten into the things which are even access to housing, access to health care, basic human necessities. But i talk too much. Hy dont i yield to you guys anything you want to summarize and or ask me or want me to do research on . You touched a lot of things that go through my mind as far as how we go back to work in a safe environment. What is the plan for some of the people in my community that wont be able to go back to work that once unemployment runs out, then what . Frmr. V. P. Biden we cannot let as long as this crisis exists, we have to make sure that unemployment is paid. And the unemployment you guys put together is the most generous Unemployment Program in american history. 600 on top of whatever you are expected. But look at the states that have been so slow in getting it out. States like florida and others have been terrible. They put half 1 million to make sure they had other parts of government. The number of claims is overwhelming, more than any times in american history. But we are going to have unemployment for anyone as long as this crisis continues. And for businesses that are larger than yours and smaller than the big this nest and even those big business and even those, we should have basic unemployment insurance. If you had 20 employees, you keep all 20 on the payroll, they all work halftime and the federal government makes up the rest. So they get their full salary, you have all the work force you need, and people arent left out and sitting home and end up in the circumstance where they are collecting unemployment. And you know as well as i do, you know extremely well, that if you have someone who has the same exact background and record as the other person, one person has been unemployed three weeks, another person unemployed six months, they both apply for the job, what happens . Monthsson unemployed six , they dont even look at them. Implication is that they must not be good. There is a real concern about providing people with dignity. My dad used to have an expression. Aboutd a job is a lot a lot more than a paycheck. Does about dignity, respect, your place in the community. Saying it is going to be ok and meaning it. When cold died, i was in grade school. My dad did not have a job. He said, you are going to have to go live with grandpa. Longest walk any parent makes. A lot of black and white and hispanic parents have made that. Toon 157 miles down claymont, delaware. Well, i then moved down to claymont, delaware. You know claymont. Claymont was a real workingclass town. Steel mill town. Get up in the morning when there was frost, driving to school, turn on the windshield wiper and that would be an oil slick. Not joking. There areck because more refineries than anywhere else. If you work like hell, three years to put a down payment on a house. Four kids, three bedrooms, split level home. Safe neighborhood. He had a shot. People dont have a shot now. This is not only about restoring the dignity and soul of this country, it is about, it is about this time we have a chance to rebuild the middle class, bring everybody along. Everybody. Hispanic, disabled, bring everybody along. And we can do this. Because the public is now seeing what happens when you are left aside. Your folks have died providing services. Grocery store workers stacking the shelves have died. All of a sudden, people are realizing the people can shelterinplace like you all have been able to do and me, who has been carrying us on our back . Essential workers. Anyway. I think they wanted to take a picture of us. Does anybody want to say anything . What i need are your phone numbers. I want to be able to call you for real. [laughter] one of my big concerns, Vice President , is time. If you look at three months and we had approximately 41 of minority businesses shutter their doors. In another three months because we are living without certainty about opening up doors and whether it be ppe or whatever we need, the clock is ticking. Frmr. V. P. Biden thats right. Every month that goes by that these Small Businesses are not able to generate revenue, not able to keep employees, it is just putting us further and further behind. My concern is what are we going to do right now from a time standpoint . Tiffany is an example. Maybe it is an investment in her. Spaces,ound to other sanitizing their businesses. We have to be able to help businesses pivot right now. Frmr. V. P. Biden right now, there are a number of programs available where you can be closed and still in fact make money. It is providing for the programs that has already been passed. That have not been made available. The money is sitting there now. I would like to know. Frmr. V. P. Biden i guarantee you it is. A trillion, but you have now significant portion going to the wrong people. Because either you dont have the capacity to know how to apply for it or you have the capacity. I will end with this. Started whenings i this Program First passed, the first cares act. I said what i would propose a president do is i would have him use the defense production act the thing that allows him to designate an operation. Shift to making gowns for people in operating rooms. Overseas,have someone the large banks where they are going to lend. They never lend to Small Businesses. Im not going to mention any of the businesses right now. Their loan is guaranteed. They are guaranteed. They are guaranteed. They are supposed to be the conduit. Do you have an account . Do you have a credit card with us . How long have you been doing business with us, etc. They dont like lending to Small Businesses. It is tedious for them. They would much rather have somebody come in, a major Real Estate Developer and lend them 58 million, it is easy to do. That is when they get Community Banks involved. ,f you work in the community you have to be able to land. The idea, the money is not getting there. It is designed to get there. I cant remember how much more is in the downtown Small Business fund . I forget how many billion dollars it is. As of last week, not a penny of it was loaned. Not a penny of it was put out there. There is a lot of money now. What we did, what we are pushing to do is make sure that it not only covers the employee. Keep them on the payroll. Number two, your overhead gets paid, your overhead gets paid. Whether or not you have a customer coming in. That was the intent of the program. So that while we built back the ,bility to show up and open up that in fact you still have employees who were getting paid. So you were able to make it, you didnt lose your business. Theirny people are losing business because they are basically going back . Think of all the people right now in west philly who have a home who cant pay their mortgage right now. They should be guaranteed well this is going on. Their mortgage gets paid. How about rent . Look at all the people now. They are saying, so i got alone. What happens when six months from now, now i have a rent check, a rent bill that i have that is, i dont know, 6,000. Were larger. For larger. Where do i get the money from that . That is why these programs were designed to help. , this is going to sound selfserving, but when i was asked to take care of the recovery act in the obama biden administration, it was over 80 billion that we got out in less than 18 months. I was on the phone every single day. I spoke with over 156 mayors. One, theernor but woman from alaska who could see russia from her front door. [laughter] frmr. V. P. Biden i tried, but she was not interested. All kidding aside. I would say, we need this money. We are going to build one guy. It is going to make the program look silly. Try me. Try me. It takes a moment to moment care. But guess what . The money got where it had to go. Employedthose teachers because the states could not pay for them. Kept all the firefighters on the job. Those First Responders on the job. Look what is happening now. Trying to get money for state and local assistance because they all have balanced budgets. They are all going into gigantic debt because they dont have the money. There are answers. There are answers. The answers are available right now. Of you know, this idea somehow separating the covid crisisfrom the jobless is a full hearing. They are tied together. Unless you deal with the covid crisis, you are not going to be able to deal with the job crisis. Now, we have let me give you a few little points. Texas has reported the highest number of hospitalizations since the pandemic. Meanwhile, the White House Task force on the pandemic has not even met since may 28. Has not even met. The testings are the testing czar is resigning. What is this . What in gods name are we talking about . So, you know, weve got to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time here. Why ae there is no reason woman who is as capable as you running a business should be in the position as a consequence of the failure of this administration to deal with this crisis. No reason. None. To gooney wasnt supposed to fortune 500 companies. They dont need it. But look at what is happening. Do is imm going to going to send you an memo that lays out the specific things ,hat i think i can do particularly minority owned sure what, and make we do in the Real Recovery when we have to invest Real Recovery, i will send to you what we are doing. Relating. Sues everyone from nurses all the way down to sanitation workers. And what we do. I will send you, tiffany, a layout of what i think and i will get one of my experts on the phone with you to see how we can actually, personally try to figure out how to guide you to get to the programs that are available to you. Me st send [indiscernible] [laughter] frmr. V. P. Biden you know, if i win it is in no small part because you came out earlier. [laughter] frmr. V. P. Biden look, i dont have to state the obvious. I dont have all the answers. But the one thing i promise yall, i will take responsibility. No president does ive ever witnessed as a student of history has been smart enough to handle all the problems. When i make a mistake, i will say it. I will acknowledge it. Fix it. Just think we just have to take more responsibility in government. Said, the words of a president matter. No matter who the president is. The words of a president , no matter how competent or incompetent they are, can send a nation to war. You can bring peace. You can make the stock market rise or fall. Look what is happening now. Only thing he has been concerned about is the stock market. And there is very little correlation between the health of the stock market and the quality of life for the vast majority of the middleclass and workingclass and poor folks. It is just on most totally disconnected. It does not mean it is not a good thing to have a stop stock market boom. But it does mean it is not a good thing when there is no way in which that wealth is able to be shared. Imagine if we had that 2 trillion tax cut that he promoted and got past for the wealthy. Even places like the Heritage Foundation said it did not grow the economy. 2 trillion. Imagine if we had it right now. The things that can build a new economy. Invest in everything from teleconferencing to providing for the kind of health. Vicepresident president , i would love you to wave your hand at jeff back there. Frmr. V. P. Biden hey, jeff, how are you . Jeff has been with us 20 years and he manages our facility. And he helped to make this event successful today and i just want you to recognize him. Frmr. V. P. Biden jeff, thank you very much, pal. I really mean it. Thank you. We are going to take a group photo. [indiscernible] think aboutiden questions you have not asked me that you want to ask. Make sure we have phone numbers so i can follow up on the things i said. Ok . Yeah. [laughter] frmr. V. P. Biden i tell you what. [indiscernible] trump not wearing a mask. I tell you what. Science matters. Thank you, pal. Any time. Frmr. V. P. Biden [indiscernible] [indiscernible] we have all of their numbers. Frmr. V. P. Biden ok. Great. Thanks, pal. Any time. Frmr. V. P. Biden thanks. [indiscernible] you were here a week ago at city hall. If you want to get a place, let us know. [laughter] frmr. V. P. Biden i tell you know is that my son who passed away went to penn and he had to borrow the money to get there. And he has never missed a payment. And so im still hanging out. The last end of that. [laughter] frmr. V. P. Biden best thing that happened. Philly is a great city. Great city. Thank you. Thank you. Frmr. V. P. Biden thank you all. Appreciate it. [indiscernible] [laughter] frmr. V. P. Biden change this country for the better. [indiscernible] thank you. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] at 12 00overage starts eastern on cspan. Today on the sunday news programs, many questions focused on the recent protests against Police Violence and legislative proposals being worked on by both parties. Heres a look at what lawmakers had to say. I guess the
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