Pennsylvania Small Business Owner Joins “It’s Bigger Than You Think”
As the Biden administration revives talks of crippling COVID-19 restrictions, the Republican State Leadership Committee today released a new episode in its podcast series “It’s Bigger Than You Think,” featuring an interview with Pennsylvania restaurant owner and anti-lockdown activist, Matt Flinchbaugh. Matt has been a small business owner for 19 years and experienced firsthand the harmful outcomes of overbearing pandemic lockdowns. During the episode, Matt discusses struggling through the pandemic, the current labor shortages caused by stay-at-home payments, and how the pandemic would’ve been significantly worse if not for Pennsylvania’s Republican-controlled legislature.
The podcast’s release comes after Pennsylvania voters in May limited Democrat Governor Tom Wolf’s powers due to his failed pandemic response and harmful unilateral control over the state. While the Republican legislature has worked tirelessly to get Pennsylvanians back to work, Governor Wolf has mirrored the agenda of Washington liberals, circumventing the will of the people and closing more than 30% of Pennsylvania’s small businesses — the second most in the nation. Pennsylvania families and small business owners will hold Governor Wolf and his Democrat allies accountable for their draconian lockdown restrictions in 2022.
Click HERE to watch the full episode.
HIGHLIGHTS
Matt on the Republican legislature serving as a counterweight to Governor Wolf’s radical policies:
“It would be 100 times worse [without the Republican legislature]. Governor Wolf doesn’t make any decisions. He hasn’t from day one. He’s taken all his orders straight from DC. Last year before Biden got to DC he was taking from the DNC, it was clear. Just look at Florida and DeSantis. He did a 180 of what everyone else did in Democratic states and look where Florida is right now. Florida is thriving.”
Matt on his first hand experience with pandemic restrictions on restaurants:
“We were restricted to 25% capacity three times throughout the pandemic. We were restricted to no indoor dining for weeks, months at a time. Then we had to socially distance our tables. Our staff and customers had to wear masks. You couldn’t sit at a bar… One of the biggest things that irritated me…was the hypocrisy of what was actually happening.”
Matt on the negative impacts of restrictions and stay-at-home payments:
“If you’re a business owner you got crushed. It doesn’t matter if you’re a woman, a minority, it was absolutely crushing. There’s not a restaurant that didn’t get affected…. I had to close both of my restaurants Mondays and Tuesdays because I don’t have any staff. I lost more staff over the Fourth of July, and unfortunately I can’t work everybody seven days a week as hard as everybody is working. We just don’t have staff…Everyone has the same problem. It’s a super easy fix. Get America back to work.”
