Chris Hogan and Steve Forbes on small business owners struggling to stay afloat amid coronavirus lockdown orders
Personal finance expert Chris Hogan and Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, field questions from Laura Ingraham's panel of small business owners.
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Forbes Media Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes told "The Ingraham Angle" Friday that small business owners who are affected by the coronavirus lockdowns in some states should "fight" and "pray" for their businesses.
"The pressure, whether it's civil disobedience ... going after your representatives and the like, petitioning, has got to be done. We already know, we've seen it in Florida. We've seen it in Georgia, Colorado, which has a Democrat governor, but he used to do business as before. He knows no revenue, you don't survive," Forbes said. "So we've got to keep this opening going with deliberate speed. We know it can be done safely. We've seen it in actual practice."
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The business mogul called on the government to pass liability protection for businesses and suspend the payroll tax.
"[What] the federal government can do is provide liability protection [so] when these businesses open, they don't get harassed by lawsuits, frivolous lawsuits," Forbes said. "The other thing they can do is suspend the payroll tax. So when you hire somebody, you pay them. You know, the cost of labor is less, they earn more, win-win all around."
Forbes also criticized the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) for what he called its "ridiculous restrictions."
"Like 75 percent of your money has to go for payroll," he said. "The fact of the matter is for a lot of businesses, utilities, rent are the biggest expenses."
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Forbes concluded by urging people to continue demonstrating against the lockdown orders.
"You pray, you fight, you get out there and you pressure and the demonstrations work," Forbes said. "New Jersey wouldn't have gone as far as it did ... if people hadn't gone out and started to do these demonstrations we've seen in other parts of the country too."
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