Obama decries GOP over small business lending bill

[July 31, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama said Saturday that the GOP stance on a small business lending bill is proof the country "can't afford the do-nothing policies and partisan maneuvering that will only take us backward."

Obama's election-year desire for additional jobs measures suffered a new setback earlier this week when Senate Republicans blocked a proposal to create a $30 billion government fund to help open up lending for credit-starved small businesses.

Obama accused the GOP of "holding America's small businesses hostage to politics," saying the bill has the support of business groups and contains "provision after provision" favored by both parties.

"Understand, a majority of senators support the plan. It's just that the Republican leaders in the Senate won't even allow it to come up for a vote," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. "That isn't right."

Obama made clear that it's not only a policy disagreement, but a reason for voters to steer away from Republicans in November's pivotal congressional elections, which will determine whether Democrats keep their majorities in the House and Senate.

"When America is just starting to move forward again, we can't afford the do-nothing policies and partisan maneuvering that will only take us backward," he said.

The proposed fund would be available to community banks with less than $10 billion in assets, to help them increase lending to small businesses. The bill would combine the fund with about $12 billion in tax breaks aimed at small businesses.

Democrats say banks should be able to use the lending fund to leverage up to $300 billion in loans, helping to loosen tight credit markets. Some Republicans, however, likened it to the unpopular bailout of the financial industry.

Democrats had wanted to pass the bill before Congress left town for summer vacation, but that won't happen with House members already headed home for its August break and the Senate in session for another week before its recess begins.

Congress has extended unemployment benefits for people who have been out of work for long stretches and passed a measure that gives tax breaks to businesses that hire unemployed workers. But many other initiatives stalled, in part because of concerns they would add to the growing national debt.

The vote to end a Republican filibuster on the latest measure was 58-42. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., joined all Republicans to vote to continue the filibuster, but only as a procedural step that allows him to call up the bill again.

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Online:

Obama address: http://www.whitehouse.gov/

[Associated Press]

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