Obama Slams GOP's "Do-Nothing Policies"

Accuses Republicans of "Partisan Maneuvering" to Hold Hostage Lending Bill Directed to Small Businesses

(AP)  President Barack Obama is going after Senate Republicans who have stymied his proposal to create a $30 billion fund to help unfreeze lending for credit-starved small businesses.

His election-year push for additional job measures suffered a fresh setback this past week when the GOP blocked the small-business plan.

The president used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to accuse Republicans of "holding America's small businesses hostage to politics." He said the bill has the support of business groups and contains many ideas 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," Mr. Obama said. "That isn't right."

President 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.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky would have none of that talk.

He said Democrats have put the bill aside six separate times so they could move on to something else. "So from the beginning this bill clearly wasn't a priority to them - until they realized that they didn't have anything to talk about when they go home in August," McConnell said.

"Nearly every major piece of legislation this Congress has considered has had painful consequences for small businesses. Attempting to create a controversy isn't going to hide that from anyone," he said.

Democrats 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.

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.

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.

[david4673]

Anyone who gripes about the deficit and wants the Bush tax cuts [for those making over $200K] to continue is a solid no-nothing hypocrite.

That would include elected officials and the people who elect them ... the useful id-ten-t's!

[sean83v]

U.S. Army pu'ssies spend $59 billion in your American taxes to destroy innocent Afghani villages. Barack Obama wastes money like a bum who just ate a rat. Karzai should tell NATO to leave. Poppy plantations produce plenty of honest revenue to control rebels.

[Simifanene]

Put the blame where it belongs. For ten years we've been going in the whole to pay for Bush, Cheney and Palins Vietnams. $800,000,000,000 dollars every year has we're putting out for two wars that only endanger us all. The Republican Corporate puppets thought they could control the oil prices by taking over Iraq, putting the America's Corporate world in charge of the gulf of Formuse. If weren?t for Bush's Vietnams eating away at our future our Federal Books would be in balance, probably with a surplus. I think it's time to build a 3 foot tall statue of Bush, with him smiling that sh-t eating smile and his hand on his stomach like Napoleon. Obama is ending Bush's Vietnams, our armies will be home within the next two years. A special force base will be left in each of Bush's Vietnams, to make clandestine attacks on the real terrorist, Ladin and the dogs that bit will be flushed out captured or killed. Our future and his next Presidency is based upon it. When Obama and the majority party bring our armies home and show Bin Ladin in chains, our budget will not only balanced but will overflow with a surplus. Change is happening, and it will blossum as our armies come home from Bush's Vietnams.

[thanksgreed]

by shierp July 31, 2010 3:49 PM EDT Do you relly believ that came from individual 20 buck donations?

+++++++
I REALLY BELIEVE the base of the GOP can't spell

[thanksgreed]

by shierp July 31, 2010 3:49 PM EDT Do you relly believ that came from individual 20 buck donations?

+++++++
I REALLY BELIEVE the base of the GOP can't spell

[desertdwellr]

I'd like to know where the money is coming from to spend on these programs?

[curse914]

by shierp July 31, 2010 4:42 PM EDT
You mix the lies and truths to try and come to a mistaken conclusion. Any tax breaks given are the same that states and cities give business to bring them to or keep them in their location. GOP is totally for working with business to keep it in our country. DEms were pro labor to the point of driving business out. The unions and high wages are the biggest reason that manufacturing left the U.S. starting back in the 70's. Even after the unions saw companies leaving, they still wouldn't look for a common ground to keep the workers employed and keep remaining business here. Nothing has been more anti labor than organized labor itself. The dems and their ties to big labor are the main reason for loss of U.S. jobs to outsourcing. Now, with their refusal to support any more meaningful immigration enforcement, the dems are the biggest supporters of insourcing also.

[][][][][][][][][][]

To start off, I am not going to say that Unions can not become corrupt paper entities, because they can. But the laborer as an individual has zero bargaining power.

The first unions were Medeval carpenters who realized that their services were of more value that they were being paid so they banned together and established "market" pay scale. You can not ignore the greed quotient on one side of the equation but acknowledge it on the other; both have to be taken into consideration in order for you to any credibility.

[enwr77]

On inauguration, President Obama was handed Bush's Pandora box. President Obama and his administration have waded through this Pandora box and found only ills. They have not been give ample time to assess and correct but, are working hard despite the criticism. There was no hope in Bush?s Pandora box the last thing to emerge. That was because hope came first, January 20, 2009.

The GOP is only pro-business and anti-people. They have not asked for funding of the Bush tax cuts to be paid for when it comes to the wealthy. They never ask for the costs of war to be prepaid. They did not promote funding to aid our returning soldiers. They did not care if the people received no unemployment and were forced into low poverty wages but, did introduce the 750 billion dollar bailout for the investment and banking firms. They ignore that fact that these firms are not lending this taxpayer bailout to help the economy. They were not even bold enough as some of the Democrats to veto the latest funding of two expensive wars. In their attempts to hurt this administration, they are selfishly hurting the country, stifling the economy, and hurting the non-rich who should only receive, according to them, a trickle. Cold hearted no-ness.

[Shocktribe]

Ah yes... Obama is finally finding himself. He has the makings of a great stand up comic.

[shierp]

by maintain_integrity July 31, 2010 5:18 PM EDT

So corporations are moving operations out of the U.S. at breathtaking speed. Since the U.S. government does not penalize them for doing so, there really is no incentive for them to stay.
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Please explain?