The cake for the marine corps in about five minutes Carley. Thank you very much. President Biden is set to visit the port of Baltimore later today, hoping to convince America that he can fix the supply chain crisis while pushing his build back better agenda. So what do local Baltimore business owners want to hear from the president? Patrick Russell is the owner of Coopers, tavern, irish, pub and restaurant. He joins us right now from Baltimore, along with Claudia who recently was closed to close her toy store running for Baltimore City Council good morning to both of you good morning, good morning, Claudia you were, you know our heart breaks for you after twenty years in business, you just closed your business about sixty days ago. It was a toy store that specialized in educational toys. What happened? Well. Look I think, like many small retailers, we experienced a lot of hardships during Covid that, were you know, Exsasser basissed, the trends that were coming our way anyway,

dealing with bigger retailers when we were first to close because of mandates that were well and known to everyone. Small retailers were put in a position where we had to make some choices and ordering product has become a big product with the supply chain issues being able to keep people employed. They dont want to necessarily be in these industries public facing because, of course, it creates a lot of controversy in terms of being able to enforce things that as business owners, we just wanted to sell toys right and look. The issue that we ran into is labor shortage supply, chain issues and the trends of people going online, Steve, absolutely Patrick your problem being in the food service industry. Is you will know if people cant come in to eat, you have got to fire people thats. What had you to do you had to reopen, but had to jack up prices if Joe Biden was sitting across the table from you right now, Patrick? What would you tell him

about what people in your boat need? Firstly, thanks for having me on the first thing I would say is: look we need this restaurant revitalization grant put back into place every restaurant that got. It is in an unfair advantage to the folks that didnt im one of the restaurants that didnt I have several restaurants. I closed one of them down during the pandemic and I shut another one down recently as well. I had two hundred and fifty employees, and now I have less than one hundred I dont know what else to say other than that we have lost a tremendous amount of revenue. All this has to do with the pandemic, and I understand that we have to go through growing pains. Hiking will supply chain cost the goods, all of those contribute to me having to make difficult choices in keeping people hired and providing their benefits and trying to keep a manageable price tag. On my product, Steve yeah and you know Joe Biden has said he would not hike up

Anybodiens taxes if they make more than four hundred thousand. But when you fill up your gas tank and every gallon is one point, thirty five more than it was last year, Patrick, that is a tax on everybody. It is, and Joe Biden know it. I have two kids in college. I help buy their food, buy paper, towels milk, eggs, chicken, beef, it doesnt matter what it is. Everything is going up, thats a tax, whether you look at it that way or not, thats a tax, Steve, Claudia real quick. What would you say to Joe Biden? Look im hoping for practical solutions and more bipartisan efforts that actually get problems solved instead of scoring political points, thats what small businesses need and thats what the american people need. We want solutions based politics, not this political point scoring situation and extreme that we see on both ends Steve well. We do need some answers and we need to fix this because businesses like both of yours are suffering Claudia and Patrick. Thank you very much for joining us today.