00:00Thank you so much. Thank you, Senator Schumer. Thank you for all of our great small business leaders who are here today.
00:07This National Small Business Week comes during a time when small businesses are being hit hard by Donald Trump's reckless, unnecessary tariffs, his policy.
00:20Trump's tariffs are a disaster for small food vendors like those based out of Commonwealth Kitchen in Boston.
00:30Executive Director Jen Fagel is with us today. She told me that she has imports coming in from 15 countries.
00:40She's a small business. This is, without question, something that threatens her.
00:47Small businesses aren't like Fortune 500 companies. They just can't write it out.
00:52They live day to day, week to week, month to month. They just can't wait three months, four months, five months, six months, a year for something to get figured out through the White House.
01:05They live day to day. And that's why she is seeing price increases.
01:14That's why all of the people behind us are seeing containers, basic ingredients, everything from eggs and sugar to vanilla and vinegar all increasing.
01:24And even with the 90-day pause, small businesses can't afford this cloud over their head or the remaining reckless Trump tariffs could return in a nanosecond.
01:37And that's why, with Senator Schumer, introducing the Small Business Liberation Act with Senator Verona to provide an exemption for small businesses in our country from Trump's Liberation Day.
01:53Because it is not Liberation Day. It's Obliteration Day for small businesses.
01:58It will be a massive economic liquidation day for small businesses. We have 7 million people in Massachusetts, and we have 734,000 small businesses in the same percentage of just for every single state in our country.
02:16They are mainstream. These aren't the firms listed on the NASDAQ or the S&P 500, but they are the lifeblood of our economy.
02:25They have set 97% of all businesses to trade internationally, and they represent 30% of all trade for our country.
02:36And that's who these people are behind us today. Those are the people who can't afford to run the risk that Trump does not know what he's doing,
02:45because they are the ones who are going to become the economic roadkill for this economic experiment which he is running.
02:53So he's shown his willingness to give relief to CEOs of the big tech giants and grant them an exemption.
03:00Apple gets an exemption. But how about people who need apples for their businesses? Do they get a relief?
03:07It's only fair to provide an exemption for small businesses that operate on razor-thin profit margins.
03:14If Republicans are serious about helping small businesses, they need to stop listening to the ones in their state.
03:20They need to stop listening to Rotarians, to Cowanians, to the Chamber of Commerce, not here in Washington, D.C.,
03:27but in the small towns and cities all across our nation.
03:31So I thank you, Leader Schoen, for hosting this important event, for uplifting the stories of small businesses being harmed,
03:39and working for us to introduce this legislation, which will give relief to all of these small businesses in our country to Trump's economic experiment.
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