The federal government is shut down. And thanks to Chuck Schumer and Senate Democrats, so is access to capital on Main Street.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has been forced to freeze its rapidly growing flagship loan guarantee programs that fund 320 small businesses every day. Thousands of entrepreneurs across America who were set to close on loans to start and expand their operations are now in limbo. Every day this shutdown continues, hundreds of local businesses will be starved of an estimated $170 million in SBA funding, cutting off vital capital that would have supported hiring, growth, and investment – and that would have cost taxpayers nothing, since the agency’s 7(a) and 504 loan programs are self-funding.

The shutdown comes just as Main Street was recovering from 40-year-high inflation and $1.9 trillion in regulatory expansion that ballooned under the Biden Administration. Under President Donald Trump, the SBA has backed a record 84,000 small business loans totaling about $45 billion........

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