President Obama Offers Plan For Small Businesses
President Barack Obama brought his job creation message to this state Tuesday, amplifying his economic strategy with digs at Wall Street and offering a plan for small businesses on Main Street.
Obama announced a new $30 billion proposal to use paid-back bailout funds to support local bank lending to small businesses, putting smaller companies at the center of his jobs plan.
“[Creating] jobs has to be our No. 1 focus in 2010,” he said. “And we’re going to start where most new jobs do, with small businesses.”
In recent days, Obama has shifted from an all-out push to pass health care reform, now stalled in Congress, to an all-out focus on job creation.
His $3.8 trillion budget proposal, sent to Congress on Monday, includes a $100 billion jobs package that calls for a mix of tax incentives and spending measures that would boost infrastructure and small businesses.
The tax cuts on capital gains and incentives for hiring new workers are meant to be sweeteners for Republicans, yet there is little indication that they will support the initiatives. A bill could come out of the Senate this week, and Obama said he wants a bill on his desk “without delay.”
Picking up where he left off Friday, when he sparred with House GOP members at a frank, unscripted town hall in Baltimore, Obama faulted them for voting in lockstep against the stimulus package measure and labeling it as a failure.
“But I have to say, I’ve noticed that some of the very same folks in Congress who opposed the [American] Recovery [and Reinvestment] Act — and claim that it hasn’t worked — have been all too happy to claim credit for Recovery Act projects and the jobs those projects have produced,” he said. “They have come to the ribbon cuttings. They’ve found a way to have their cake and vote against it, too.”
Yet he extended a hand to Republicans, saying that “we’ve got two parties in this country, and that’s a good thing,” and recalled the House GOP town hall last week.
“For more than an hour, we had a frank conversation about the issues facing our country. We aired some grievances. We shared some ideas. There were plenty of things on which we didn’t agree,” he said. “But there were also things on which we did — and many on which we should if we could just focus on solving problems instead of scoring political points.”
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), a ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee, sent out a release Tuesday, criticizing Obama by saying that Troubled Asset Relief Program funds shouldn’t be used for a small business loan fund.
“TARP dollars should not be used as a slush fund for the president’s other priorities,” he said in a statement. “The TARP program should end immediately, and, as the TARP law requires, all repaid funds should be used to reduce our staggering debt burden, not used in a way that will add to it.”
Obama hammered Republicans for supporting then voting against a bipartisan fiscal commission, saying that it was Beltway politics as usual and seemed to question the workings of the Senate more generally as he did in the State of the Union.
“Now, it’s one thing to have an honest difference of opinion on something. There’s nothing wrong with that,” he said. “But you can’t walk away from your responsibilities to confront the challenges facing this country because you think it’s good short-term politics. ... We can’t afford that.”
The focus on jobs and small businesses is a change of topic for Obama and his party, who have been engaged in a yearlong debate to reform health care.
With the midterm election just 10 months away, Democrats have shifted course, hoping to stave off the anti-incumbency fervor that could batter their ranks in both Houses.
Yet Obama is likely to face pushback in the coming weeks from Democrats over his $3.8 billion budget, which projects a decade of deficits and lean years for domestic programs favored by his party.
His three-year spending freeze has also ruffled feathers on the Hill.
The small business announcement is an attempt to put the White House and Democrats squarely on Main Street, as a populist backlash has put Obama in a defensive posture in explaining the bank bailouts. In his State of the Union address, he said he “hated” having taxpayers foot the bill to rescue major banks.
As president, Obama has traveled to this state once before, in the fall, just as the health care debate was heating up. And as a candidate, New Hampshire and the high school where Obama appeared Tuesday proved to be pivotal stops in the primary race.
In the days leading up to the January primary, Obama drew a crowd of nearly 3,000, and New Hampshire seemed ready to follow Iowa. Then then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, a day later, drew a huge crowd of her own, making it a race.
And as happened with President Bill Clinton, New Hampshire’s independent minded voters made Hillary Clinton the comeback kid, at least temporarily, stretching out the primary fight until June.
“Now, as some of you might remember, I’ve spent a little time in this state. I’ve had beers at the Peddler’s Daughter here in Nashua and manned the scoop at ice cream socials from Sunapee to Dover to Hudson,” Obama said, recalling the campaign. “I’ve walked Main Street in Concord, and visited with folks in all 10 counties.”
At 7.0 percent, New Hampshire’s unemployment rate is lower than the national average, which is 10 percent. January numbers come out Friday.
Buoyed by Obama’s outing at a House GOP retreat Friday, the White House was no doubt hoping for the kind of freewheeling Baltimore exchange when the president parried with Republican critics.
But the audience’s questions weren’t nearly as pointed.
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Sources: Politico, Google Maps
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