Friend,

The numbers tell the story of the U.S. economy for the last two months: More than 100,000 small businesses lost. Retail sales down nearly 18%. More than 36 million unemployed. 

These numbers also show how the economic fallout from the pandemic is hitting small businesses that often serve as the heart of our communities. Neighborhood restaurants, art galleries, bookstores, and other shops now are facing uncertain futures due to a pay-to-play system favoring large corporations and special interests that influence policy with big-dollar political donations.

While global crises like the COVID-19 pandemic are difficult to plan for, a distorted economic system that fosters pay-to-play politics and enables big corporations to use their political influence to push their way to the front of the line also hinders the way our economy manages and recovers from crises. 

That is among the reasons why business leaders from across the country, with experience in small, midsize and large corporate businesses, are all coming together as part of the Business for American Promise network to advance an amendment that will level the playing field and encourage innovation and create an environment for long-term economic growth. To further amplify the voices of these citizens—including the 58 million-plus Americans who work at small and midsize businesses—we are uniting socially responsible business leaders in nonpartisan advocacy for the 28th Amendment.

We’re thrilled to see more business leaders making an impact by signing the Statement of Principle for Business Professionals, including Peter Schwartz, an internationally renowned futurist and business strategist, whose article highlighted below reminds us to envision an economy where the rules apply to everyone rather than benefit the ultra-wealthy. As Peter says, “today’s rules of the political game make it impossible for either government or business to take the long view,” instead rewarding short-term decisions that weaken the marketplace and our democracy. 

Especially now, when most business owners are dealing with plenty of unexpected challenges, we’re heartened to have Peter and numerous other business leaders join our movement to create an economy where companies compete based on the value they create in America’s marketplace. 

• Peter Schwartz, futurist and author of The Art of the Long View.
• Rebecca Henderson, John and Natty McArthur University Professor at Harvard University, Professor of Strategy and General Management, Harvard Business School.
• Neal Simon, author of Contract to Unite America and former CEO of investment firms.
• Leo Strine, Former Chief Justice and Chancellor of Delaware, adjunct professor, Harvard and University of Pennsylvania Law Schools.

Veterans Continue the Fight for Our Republic’s Values 

As we approach Memorial Day, we commemorate the men and women who died while in the military service to our country and fought for its founding values. We also are grateful for the veterans who continue this honorable service. Several American Promise citizen leaders are veterans of military service who again are answering the call to protect our nation and leading the charge in the fight to limit the influence of money in our political system:

• Chet Hunt is a Vietnam veteran and a citizen leader in APAK, the Knoxville, Tennessee, American Promise Chapter. Why did he join American Promise? “We must, without waver, demand the 28th Amendment to restore political integrity and equality of citizenship now and forever.” Read more in this article from Chet.
   
• Kansas educator, farmer, veteran, and former political candidate Alan LaPolice talks about the 28th Amendment, getting big money out of politics and how that issue affects us all. Hear more from Alan and his advocacy for the amendment in this video.

From USA Today: Bruce Bond and Erik Olsen, co-founders of Common Ground Committee, encourage leaders of both political parties to “look beyond their talking points” to discover ways to support and implement voting by mail for the fall election. “Vote-by-mail may or may not be the best election system over time,” they say. “But in this election, it is worth the investment so states that have the means to implement it can help their most vulnerable citizens feel safe.” Read more.

From Forbes: The federal government’s stimulus bill will do more harm than good for many small businesses, according to this contributed article by Morgan Simon. “We’ve seen an incredible lack of thoughtfulness when it comes to race, class, and the perpetuation of long-term structural inequalities in building out our response plans,” she says. “This translates into concrete policies that enhance the wealth of the privileged and set others back even further.” Read more.

From the Lugar Center: A nonpartisan tool that measures the degree to which members of Congress work across party lines on legislation shows improvement in 2019 from historical averages. “Many functions and decisions within Congress remain bitterly partisan, especially those pitting the leadership of the parties against one another,” said Lugar Center Policy Director Dan Diller. “Yet the Bipartisan Index continues to find an undercurrent of bipartisan cooperation between individual members of Congress on introducing and co-sponsoring legislation.” Read more. 

From BlackHer: In this interview, Keesha Gaskins-Nathan, program director, Democratic Practice – U.S. at the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, explains some of the motivations that drive her democracy reform work. “The democracy we envision is inclusive and representative of all,” she says. “That’s important because, in a true democracy, you’d don’t win all the time. You don’t lose all the time either. People need to believe that whether they win or lose, the system is fair.” Read more. 

From the Christian Post: Zach Wamp and Weston Wamp of Issue One call on people of faith to join the movement to get big money out of politics. “In recent years, the amount of money spent to influence both our elections and government has skyrocketed. Undoubtedly, this exercise in buying influence has tilted the tables in American politics towards monied interests,” they say. “The list of ways that our system has become rigged to favor the wealthy and well-connected goes on and on, and it’s not a Republican or a Democratic problem — both parties are at fault.” Read more.

From the Center for Responsive Politics: In Montana, national groups are pouring money into the U.S. Senate campaign between Democratic Gov. Steve Bullock and incumbent Sen. Steve Daines, a Republican. While outside groups supporting Bullock are spending money to flip the Senate to Democrats, the GOP is attempting to widen the field in Montana by paying at least $100,000 for signature gathering to help qualify the Green Party for the November election. Read more.

From Rolling Stone: The economic devastation from COVID-19 includes more than 30 million Americans filing for unemployment, millions losing their health insurance, and thousands of small businesses facing an uncertain future. But the $3.2 trillion CARES Act, which Congress passed as COVID-19 economic relief, includes a $454 billion loophole for “big business” that could grow to $4 billion. Read more.

From the New York Times: Small-business loans and grants that are part of the $2 trillion CARES Act went first to better-resourced and politically well-connected businesses, while only a quarter of small businesses received the aid, according to this opinion article. “In part, that’s because larger corporations and their trade associations leveraged their considerable lobbying resources to push for provisions in the COVID-19 relief legislation … that would allow even global chains to access the ‘small business’ money. Read more.

For the moment, American Promise events are being rescheduled or reimagined as digital/online events. Fortunately, we have lots of video! Enjoy recordings of many of our events on our YouTube Channel and watch the American Promise calendar for the most current information.