Issue Position: Support Our Small Businesses

Issue Position

Small businesses are the engine of our local economies, and 70% of new job growth in our country comes from small businesses and start-ups. They will play an integral role in helping us recover from the greatest recession since the Great Depression. Congress can and should focus on providing an understandable, reliable and level playing field to foster small business start-ups and growth.

To support our small businesses, we should:

- Get credit flowing back to Main Street

In the short term, Community Banks must get back to lending on Main Street. I support reinvesting the billions in returned TARP funds into our Community Banks so they can extend credit more freely to local businesses.

In the long term, we must have a stable and secure financial system -- and this means we must have comprehensive Wall Street reform.

Wall Street reform must force the big banks to play by the rules, leveling the playing field for small businesses and community banks that already do. We have to restore confidence in the markets and make it easier for small businesses to get the money they need to grow and create jobs.

For more on this, please see my "Wall Street Reform" issues page.

- Targeted tax incentives to spur Small Business job growth

- We can provide targeted, small business tax credits for investment in new facilities, equipment and workers.

- Congress should also consider a long-term extension of tax credits that are critical to growth of small businesses, especially in new and emerging fields, such as the research and development tax credit and production and investment tax credits for clean energy.

- Streamline Government Interaction

Small businesses often feel overwhelmed by the difficulty of interacting and doing business with the government, at all levels. For example, there have been many delays in funding from the stimulus, which are a direct result of the overly complicated and burdensome paperwork requirements. Congress must streamline this process and let companies get these people back to work.

Source