Check out today's Politico op-ed by Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Assistant to the Speaker and Ways and Means Committee Member, on how the President and Democratic Congress are helping small businesses.

Helping small businesses create jobs

By: Rep. Chris Van Hollen

August 27, 2010 

 

When President Barack Obama was sworn into office, our economy was in freefall – we were losing jobs at a rate of 700,000 a month with no end in sight. 

To address the crisis, stem job losses and save our economy from collapse, the new president and Congress took a series of immediate and decisive steps. Despite consistent opposition from congressional Republicans, these measures were passed and stopped our economy’s downward spiral. 

Today we are moving in the right direction – markets have stabilized and we have seen six consecutive months of job growth in the private sector. Still, the pace of job growth is too slow and more remains to be done. Small businesses are likely to drive the next phase of the recovery – they are our engines of economic growth. So Democrats are going to continue to make the needs of small business owners a priority. 

Working with the Small Business Administration, we’ve helped drive 29 percent of Recovery Act contracts from the stimulus to small business owners, who have a proven track record of creating jobs. Recovery Act grants have proved a lifeline for small businesses. 

I’ve heard it firsthand, from constituents like Stephen Hoffman, chief executive officer of Sanaria, who has been able to keep employees and focus on creating a malaria vaccine that could save millions of lives. Sanaria is just one of thousands of small businesses across the country helped by this legislation. 

The Recovery Act stands to ultimately offer $30 billion in new contracting opportunities to small companies. Passing the Recovery Act in February 2009 – which gave 95 percent of working families historic tax cuts and small businesses $15 billion in tax incentives – was just the first step of this Congress to stabilize the economy. 

Access to capital is key to small businesses growing and hiring new employees. That is why the House passed legislation like the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act and the Small Business Jobs Tax Relief Act – bills that will give billions in private sector lending opportunities and lower taxes so entrepreneurs can attract capital and launch new companies. 

Unfortunately, Senate Republicans are using procedural tactics to block these pro-growth initiatives. Both bills deserve an immediate up or down vote. 

The HIRE Act also supports small businesses. It gives a payroll tax holiday to employers who hire people unemployed for more than 60 days. This law is expected to help businesses hire 300,000 workers. HIRE also funds a variety of projects that should ultimately allow small businesses to expand.

In addition, new legislation to prevent hundreds of thousands of teachers, firefighters and police officers from being fired, keeps teachers in classrooms, cops on the beat and their families above water. This important investment in our communities, which helps our recovery, was fully paid for, in part, by closing a perverse tax loophole that rewards large corporations that ship U.S. jobs -- rather than U.S. products -- overseas. 

The focus of the president and Democrats in Congress has been on rebuilding our economy and supporting small business. Small businesses are now receiving $40 billion in tax credits to help them provide health insurance to employees. 

The Wall Street Reform bill now ensures that small businesses will never again have to pay for the irresponsible actions of certain big banks. 

Our “Make it in America” agenda is a plan to boost manufacturing and innovation, strengthen the U.S. workforce and create a level playing field for American companies to compete worldwide. The goal is to expand the number of secure, well-paying jobs and reward those businesses that grow by putting Americans to work -- rather than those that outsource U.S. jobs. 

We have already sent the first item to the president’s desk: the U.S. Manufacturing Enhancement Act, which makes it cheaper for American companies to get the materials they need to manufacture U.S. goods by eliminating certain tariffs, ultimately making them more competitive. And we will continue to move this agenda forward in the fall. 

We do not want to return to the policies that brought our country to the brink of economic collapse. Democrats are committed to moving the United States forward; supporting innovation and job creation, and preventing a return to the economic policies that benefited big corporate special interests at the expense of U.S. taxpayers and workers. 

We have made important progress. But we won’t stop until every American who wants to work has the opportunity to do so. 

 

 

 

Earlier this week Tim Fernholz of The American Prospect had a great article highlighting how successful the Build America Bonds program has been since its inception under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Fernholz states:

The House recently passed H.R. 4213 The American Jobs & Closing Tax Loopholes Act of 2010 which would extend the popular Build America Bonds program, which has not only allowed State and local governments to invest more than $97 billion in infrastructure projects nationwide but has also supported more than 1.7 million jobs nationwide.

 by Cameron Brenchley