Obama Pushes Congress to Pass Small Business Plan

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama pushed the Senate on Tuesday to pass legislation he says will benefit small businesses and generate jobs, and called on Republicans to back what he described as a plan similar to programs they had supported in the past, reported Reuters.

The plan includes a $30 billion fund to invest in community banks to bolster lending to small businesses, which account for a large portion of job creation in the U.S. economy. It also would provide tax credits and exclude some small business stock sales from capital gains taxes.

Obama wants Congress to pass as much legislation as possible before adjourning for its August recess, aware that legislators will be in full campaign mode when they return in mid-September, just weeks before the November 2 elections.

He is traveling to New Jersey on Wednesday, where he will tout the bill at a meeting with small business owners at a sandwich shop.

The House of Representatives, which has already passed a version of the bill, adjourns at the end of this week and the Senate aims to leave at the end of next week.

"These are the kind of common sense steps that folks from both parties have supported in the past," Obama told reporters at the White House in remarks taking aim at Republicans after an hourlong meeting with congressional leaders from both parties that he said was "productive."

"I hope that in the coming days, we'll once again find common ground and get this legislation passed. We shouldn't let America's small businesses be held hostage to partisan politics and certainly not at this critical time," he said.

House Republican leader John Boehner, who attended the meeting, wants to repeal and replace Obama's healthcare overhaul and keep in place tax cuts for wealthy Americans that expire at the end of the year. Obama, who wants to let those cuts expire, has criticized Republicans for supporting economic plans he says helped lead to the recession and favor the rich.