SBA’s Loeffler slams Democrats over shutdown hurting small businesses

Small Business Administration Administrator Kelly Loeffler says Democrats face a ‘shameful moment’ with… Government shutdown It amounts to what she calls liberals’ intended effect of hurting small businesses.

The federal government is approaching its fifth week From closing After lawmakers failed to push the continuing resolution dozens of times, according to a previous report. Controversies over Obamacare remain at the forefront, with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other Democrats seeking to extend subsidies for Affordable Care Act premiums, while Republicans say the issue should be addressed after the government reopens.

“Before this shutdown, as of September, small business confidence was at a seven-year high, and small businesses haven’t felt this confident in the economy since President Trump’s first term,” Loeffler told Kudlow on Monday. “It’s all thanks to President Trump’s economic agenda, which, by the way, is a supply-side agenda. … It’s free and fair trade. It’s low taxes. It’s deregulation. It’s access to capital.”

“Because of their confidence, in 2025, the fiscal year we just concluded 27 days ago, the SBA will break a 72-year lending record, extending $45 billion to 85,000 small businesses across this country,” she continued. “They were very optimistic heading into this shutdown, but look, this shutdown is having the effect intended by the Democrats. They want to hurt Main Street and that’s what they’re trying to do now.”

Republicans and Democrats clash over expiring Obamacare subsidies during ongoing shutdown talks

Loeffler, who told FOX Business that the shutdown is “real.” Economic consequencesHe criticized Democrats for trying to “inflict pain” on Main Street.

“It’s $15 billion a week,” she explained. “It’s taking between a tenth of a percent of GDP. That’s a loss of 43,000 jobs in one month, probably, according to the CEA. And where is that expenditure that’s lost $15 billion, the 43,000 jobs, coming from? From Main Street, from small businesses, 20% of which say they rely on federal government employees as their clients or federal agencies or federal contractors.”

Loeffler says she agreed with DOGE from day one and revealed that the agency reduced its staff by about 52%.

“We’ve done more with less, just as small businesses do, and we’ll continue to look for efficiencies because just like any company in the private sector, you could see the headlines over the weekend, large companies that laid off workers saying, ‘Actually, we’re doing better with fewer employees,'” she said. We have created too much complexity. We need to make sure we are effective.”

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President Trump delivers remarks from the White House. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/Getty Images)

Loeffler said Democrats want big government that “stifles small businesses” and “crowds out innovation.”

“It is important that we continue DOGE’s efforts and be accountable to taxpayers,” she explained. “That’s what I’m going to do at the end of the year. I’m going to show the taxpayers how responsible we are at this agency with their hard-earned tax dollars.”

Fox News’ Alex Miller contributed to this report.