Celebrity chef and Top Chef Judge Tom Colicchio may have been the first invited guest on Fox News that was allowed to praise Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act.
The Top Chef judge formed the Independent Restaurant Coalition which lobbied local, state and federal governments for relief after their businesses were closed by government mandates to slow the spread of the virus.
Fox News host Sandra Smith pleasantly asked if the restaurant rescue that is part of Biden's 1.9T COVID bill is a "game changer for the hospitality industry and small local eateries which have been destroyed by the pandemic.
"It absolutely is a game changer," Colicchio said.
After praising the grassroots efforts to raise awareness and lobby for help for the entire restaurant community, Colicchio thanked the politicians that put together the restaurant provisions in the bill.
He continued,. "A big thank you goes out to Senator Schumer because the Restaurant Act was not included in the original $1.9 trillion stimulus bill and Leader Schumer made sure that we were represented."
We talked about the fishermen and the cheese-makers and the farmers and electricians and plumbers. These are all people that we owe money to and so it will enable us to pay our past bills and stay intact and hopefully have a strong growth going forward. We also looked at the job reports from last week, a lot of that came from hospitality. If these restaurants close, those jobs don't come back so it will have a huge impact on job growth in the future.
Sandra Smith was very nice to Colicchio which isn't usually the case when a left-leaning guest is on.
No Republicans in the HOUSE voted for the COVID bill and no Republicans in the SENATE voted for it either, which means the entire Republican Congress voted against all small, medium, and large restaurants and the entire hospitality industry.
It will be interesting to see if they remember that.
