Congress zeros in on small business

Democratic congressional aides told the Wall Street Journal that Democrats are moving forward with a $170 billion package to spur jobs growth and emergency unemployment assistance.

And small business plays a big part in that plan, reports say.

There are a number of plans taking shape in Washington D.C. right now. Two bills are being constructed, with President Barack Obama unveiling his own plan this Tuesday — stemming from his jobs summit this week. That bill could overlap with Congress’s, but the two won’t be identical, the Wall Street Journal reports.

The House Democrats will likely unveil their big plan Dec. 14.

Obama delivered closing remarks at the jobs summit yesterday, saying the credit market is one factor paralyzing the job market.

“All the reports that we’re getting is that if you are a big corporation right now, the credit markets are working for you. If you are a small business, and in some cases a medium-size business, even if you are profitable, that you’re still seeing credit frozen,” he said. “And we are going to have to unlock that and that’s going to require an interface between what we’re doing on the recovery side and what we’re doing on financial regulation and our banking policies.”

Republican leaders have found fault with the president’s summit, calling it a distraction. Here’s a CBS story that outlines that perspective.

“Yesterday, President Obama hosted a ‘jobs summit’ at the White House in an attempt to convince the media and the American public that his administration is concerned with unemployment,” said Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele. “Unfortunately this so-called ‘jobs summit’ was not about creating jobs. It was about creating a distraction to hide the fact that President Obama has managed to create more bureaucracy in Washington than jobs for American families.”

Know a small business you think we should write about? Contact Herald writer Amy Rolph at arolph@heraldnet.com.

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