President Obama will ask Congress to create a Small Business Fund with some of the money paid back by bailed-out Wall Street firms.
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President Barack Obama will outline a plan at a New Hampshire town hall meeting on Tuesday aimed at stimulating lending for small businesses, creating jobs and jumpstarting the economy.
"Jobs will be our number one focus in 2010. And we're going to start where most new jobs do -- with small businesses," Obama will say, according to excerpts released by the White House. "These are the companies that begin in basements and garages when an entrepreneur takes a chance on his dream, or a worker decides it's time she became her own boss."
The trip to New Hampshire is part of a renewed push by Obama to show that he is focused on job creation and the economy -- about two-thirds of his State of the Union address last week were devoted to creating jobs, including mentions of the small-business plans he'll outline today.
In his State of the Union address, Obama asked Congress to get him a jobs bill "without delay," and Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) appears to be on track to announce a bill this week.
Tuesday Obama will call on Congress to create a new Small Business Fund that would use $30 billion of the money paid back by bailed out Wall Street firms to expand lending to local banks for small business loans.
"The more loans these banks provide to creditworthy small businesses, the better a deal we'll give them on capital from this fund," he will say. "Combined with my proposal back in December to continue waiving fees and increasing guarantees for SBA-backed loans, this will help small banks do even more of what our economy needs -- ensure that small businesses are once again the engine of job growth in America."
Among the proposals Obama will outline are eliminating capital gains taxes on small businesses and a $5,000 tax credit for new hires, a bid to get some Republican support for the $100 billion jobs package that Obama has included in his budget.
"Small businesses ... have created roughly 65 percent of all new jobs over the past decade and a half," Obama will say, according to excerpts. "And I think we should make it easier for them to open their doors, expand their operations, and hire more workers."
The national unemployment rate is 10 percent, with January numbers expected on Friday. The economy grew 5.7 percent in the last quarter, the largest uptick in six years.
Obama, who visited Florida last week, will take his plans on the road over the next several weeks as the White House focuses on job creation. His day trip to New Hampshire will include a stop at a small business, and he will take questions at a town hall meeting at Nashua North High School in the afternoon.
