SEPTEMBER 2010: THE SMALL BUSINESS JOBS ACT

• The Small Business Jobs Act Offers $12 Billion In Business Tax Breaks To Encourage Investment, Entrepreneurship And Hiring. [Los Angeles Times, 9/23/10]
• The Small Business Jobs Act Is Expected To Create 500,000 Jobs. [CNN, 9/14/10]
• The Small Business Jobs Bill Includes Eight Tax Cuts For Small Business. “ [White House Fact Sheet, 9/10/10]
• The Small Business Jobs Act Also Includes A Measure To Boost Lending For Small Business. [Politico, 9/24/10]

Sen. George Voinovich Said GOP Was Doing Partisan “Messaging” On Small Business Lending Bill. “In an interview, Voinovich said he could no longer support Republican efforts to delay the measure in hopes of winning the right to offer additional amendments. Most of the proposed GOP amendments ‘didn't have anything to do with the bill’ anyway, Voinovich said, and amounted merely to partisan ‘messaging.’” [Washington Post, 9/9/10]

Republicans Contributed to Drafting the Small Business Bill Before Opposing It.  According to Senator Landrieu, “I think that this debate has shown that we actually brought a bipartisan bill to the floor, that has been worked on openly in public all year or longer, in two committees, Finance and Small Business. As I said earlier today, and I put the red-line chart up, which I will put up in just a minute, this chart that we sent out to many people today showed every provision of the bill and who suggested that provision. As you can see, there are many Republican names listed here--Senator Snowe, Senator Crapo, Senator Risch, Senator Snowe again. Senator Grassley is on here. Senator Hatch is on here--because this bill was built with some of the best ideas from these committees over a long period of time.” [Congressional Record, 7/29/10]

Republicans Opposed The Very Agreement on the Small Business Bill They Requested Days Before. After successfully stopping Republicans from killing the Small Business bill, the GOP days later held up consideration, after Reid gave them what they wanted. “I was disappointed that my friends on the other side of the aisle have not been willing to work with us. It seems to me the goalposts were moved often, but I have been here a while and I understand how things work. Last week, they requested; that is, the Republicans, that we give them votes on three amendments. We all know what they are now. Grassley has an amendment dealing with biodiesel. Hatch has an amendment dealing with research and development. Johanns has an amendment to repeal the corporate reporting requirement. Earlier today, I propounded a unanimous consent request where we took out of the bill the issue relating to agricultural disaster and that we would have the three votes I mentioned and we would have Democratic amendments that would be opposite those, three in number. There was an objection. I cannot understand why they, my friends on the Republican side, cannot take yes for an answer.” [Congressional Record, 7/29/10]

• FLIP - RNC Chairman Michael Steele Said Small Business “Don’t Need” Increased Access To Credit Lines And Loans From Financial Institutions. RNC Chairman Michael Steele: “What we have here right now is more of the same. You have the president proposing a small business bill which is or in which, basically, you're going to put money into financial institutions -- financial institutions on the assumption that small businesses are going to take out credit lines. They don't need that.” [Fox News, 9/10/10]

• FLOP - RNC Chairman Michael Steele Said That We Should Help Small Business Create Jobs “By Opening Up Capital And Credit Markets. STEELE: “Republican leadership on the Hill has offered time and time again and will continue to do so until they take the majority in November when they can actually begin to act and put into place these policies that empower small businesses by creating — helping them create jobs by opening up capital and credit markets.” [Fox News, 9/3/10]

• FLOP - RNC Chairman Michael Steele Said That The Administration Should Give Small Business “Incentives…. To Get Back Into The Credit Markets.” STEELE: “And I didn’t hear anything from [White House economic advisor Larry] Summers that assured me or reassured me that this administration gets it when it comes to how you create wealth in this nation. It is not by spending dollars on programs that you can put in a separate bill and deal with later on, instead its focusing on, you know, tax credits and relief for small-business owners, incentives for people to get back into the credit markets.” [ABC News, 2/8/09]

MARCH 2010: THE HIRE ACT

• Obama Signed The HIRE Act That Includes Tax Breaks And Business Credits And Exempts Businesses That Hire Unemployed Workers From Paying The Payroll Security Tax Through December 2010. [CBS News, 3/18/10]

• The $18 Billion Jobs Bill Gave Tax Breaks To Small Businesses That Hire New Workers. [Washington Post, 3/17/10]

Rep. John Boehner Called Small Business Jobs Creation Plan “Repulsive.” “Republicans oppose using TARP funds to pay for a new jobs bill, and argue money from this year’s $787 billion stimulus should be used instead. They say all leftover or returned TARP money should go instead to reducing the $12 trillion federal debt. House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) on Tuesday called the idea of using TARP funds paid back to the government for new programs ‘repulsive.’”  [The Hill, 12/9/09]

Rep. Eric Cantor Slammed The Senate Jobs Bill And Criticized The Targeted Tax Credits For Small Business. George Stephanopoulos: “How about on jobs? You saw the Senate have a bipartisan vote on a $15 billion jobs bill. Can the House support that?” Eric Cantor: “I'm not sure the Democrats in the House will support this. And Nancy Pelosi has not indicated that she'll bring this bill up. there's a lot of things we can do to help this economy, to help small businesses get back on their feet. The kind of policies that are the central part of this senate bill don't make a lot of sense to small business people that I've spoken with.” George Stephanopoulos: “So, that's a no?” Eric Cantor: “Again, we have to see what Nancy Pelosi is going to bring up in the house. But i can tell you, George, by targeting the tax credits the way that the Senate bill does, you're not going to help small businesses right now that are having trouble keeping the lights on.” [ABC, “Good Morning America,” 2/23/10]

Rep. Eric Cantor Was One of the “Republicans in Congress [Coming] Out Swinging” Against President Obama’s Small Business and Job Creation Proposal, Saying “I Absolutely Disagree” With Plan. “Republicans in Congress came out swinging today against President Obama's new multibillion-dollar stimulus and jobs proposals, calling for completely different measures to revive the economy. ‘Clearly, the president is trying, yet again, to get Americans back to work... he essentially announced a ‘stimulus II’ program,’ House Republican Whip Eric Cantor (Va.) said at a press conference today, CBS News Capitol Hill Producer Jill Jackson reports. However, he added, ‘I absolutely disagree that we can spend the way out of recession.’” [CBS, 12/8/09]

MARCH 2010: HEALTH CARE REFORM

• Health Care Plan Would Give Out $40 Billion In Tax Credits To Small Business To Help Them Offer Coverage. [Time Magazine, 2/22/10]

• Commonwealth Fund Study: Health Care Reform Will Provide $40 Billion In Tax Credits For Small Business, Reducing Premiums By 8% To 11%. [USA Today, 9/3/10]

• Business Roundtable: Health Insurance Overhaul Should Be A “National Priority,” And Without Action, “If Present Trends Continue, The Cost To Provide An Employee With Health Care Will Rise From $10,000 To $28,000 Over 10 Years.” [New York Times, 3/2/10]

• Small Business Majority Study: Reform Will Reduce The Cost To Small Businesses Of Providing Health Care. [The Economic Impact of Healthcare Reform on Small Business, 6/11/09]

• Small Business Majority Study: Small Businesses Will “Likely Fare Better” Under The Reforms Being Debated In Washington. [The Economic Impact of Healthcare Reform on Small Business, 6/11/09]

Republican Leaders Say Repeal Of Health Care Law Tops Their Priorities. “Republican leaders are also devising legislative maneuvers that might have a bigger impact, using appropriations bills and other tactics to try to undermine the administration's overhaul of health care and financial regulations and its plans to regulate greenhouse gases. GOP leaders also hope to trim spending, return unspent stimulus funds and restore sweeping tax cuts. Business groups have compiled lists of impeding regulations they hope to see stopped under a GOP House majority. ‘We need to establish the proverbial lines in the sand and show we are serious about limited government,’ said Wisconsin's Rep. Paul Ryan, a leading conservative who is in line to chair the House budget committee if Republicans take control. … At its core, the GOP plan will focus on spending and whittling away the health-care law, the Democrats' landmark achievement, which extends insurance to 32 million Americans. House Republicans say a full repeal would pick up a few Democratic votes, but acknowledge the effort would fail in the Senate. Instead, they plan other means to chip away at it, by trying to choke off appropriations funding for key pieces, since House approval is required to pass such spending. Republican congressional aides and advisers say their focus would including blocking funding to hire new Internal Revenue Service agents, who are needed to enforce the law's tax increases. They also would consider barring spending for a new board that approves Medicare payment cuts as well as on research that compares the effectiveness of medical procedures. Other potential targets include funds to pay for a long-term care insurance program and money to help states set up insurance exchanges where consumers will be able to use tax credits beginning in 2014. … Some Republican aides and advisers say if Republicans controlled the House, they could wedge wide-ranging provisions into appropriations bills that would choke off future funding for the core of the law. Others caution that Senate Democrats wouldn't sign off on anything too expansive, and that Republicans may have power over about $100 billion in implementation spending.” [Wall Street Journal, 9/20/10]

FEBRUARY 2009: THE RECOVERY ACT

• Small Business Administration Recovery Act Programs Have Supported $15 Billion in Loans Since The Package Was Passed. [The Hill, 12/17/09]

• The Recovery Act Provided $6 Million In Direct MicroLoans For Small Businesses. [CNN Money.com, 2/16/09]

• The Recovery Act Allowed The SBA To Guarantee Up To $3 Billion in Loans To Stimulate Secondary Market Investment, While Being Cost-Free To Taxpayers. [CNN Money.com, 2/16/09]

• The Recovery Act Included Provision For Small Businesses To Use Operating Losses To Reduce Tax Burden. [CNN Money.com, 2/16/09]

• The Recovery Act Allowed Long-Term Investors In Small Businesses To Exclude 75% Of Capital Gains Taxes. [CNN Money.com, 2/16/09]

• The Recovery Act Extended Higher Cap For Small Businesses To Expense Up To $250,000 in New Equipment Purchases for 2009. [CNN Money.com, 2/16/09; CNN Money.com, 4/1/08]

• The Recovery Act Broadened The $2,400 Work Opportunity Tax Credit Small Business Hiring Incentive To Include Disadvantaged Youths and Jobless Veterans. [CNN Money.com, 2/16/09]

Rep. Eric Cantor Said The Economy Was Not Getting Better And Called The Federal Stimulus “An Utter Failure.” “Clearly there is unemployment in and around Culpeper and that’s exactly why we called for and created this job fair today,’ Cantor, minority whip in the U.S. House, told reporters before he left around noon [in late November], his blue Suburban idling outside. Asked if he thought the economy was getting better as growth in the gross domestic product seems to indicate, Cantor said no. ‘People do not live and breathe the GDP,’ he said. ‘They are about their own circumstances and when you are out of work, there is an economic crisis in the household.’ Cantor, as he has repeatedly in recent weeks and months, condemned the $787 billion stimulus package passed by Congress in February as ‘an utter failure.’” [Star-Exponent, 11/24/09]

Rep. Eric Cantor Said Obama's Economic Decisions “Have Not Produced Jobs.” “Saying the stimulus bill passed earlier this year was 'full of pork barrel spending, government waste, and massive borrowing,’ the House Minority Whip [Cantor] also says in Saturday's address that‘President Obama’s economic decisions have not produced jobs, have not produced prosperity, and have not worked.’” [CNN, 7/11/09]

Rep. Mike Pence: “The Only Thing The Stimulus Plan Had Stimulated Is More Government Debt.” According to NBC, Rep. Mike Pence said recently that “The only thing the stimulus plan has stimulated is more government debt.” [MSNBC, “First Read,” 7/8/09]