Obama Calls Out Senate Republicans: Pass Small Business Bill

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama exhorted Congress on Monday to make passing a long-languishing small business aid package its first order of business when it returns next month from its summer break.

"I ask Senate Republicans to drop the blockade," Obama said in the Rose Garden after meeting with his economic advisers.

Acknowledging that the economy still remains extremely fragile, the president said he'd also have other specific ideas in the days ahead.

He mentioned extending Bush tax cuts due to expire this year for households making under $250,000 a year, upping the nation's investment in clean energy, rebuilding more roads and highways and tax cuts designed to keep jobs in the U.S.

"My economic team is hard at work identifying additional measures that could make a difference in both promoting growth and hiring in the short term and increasing our economy's competitiveness in the long term," he said.

In a week likely to be dominated by foreign policy, Obama is trying to show he's still minding the economy after his 10-day vacation in Martha's Vineyard.

A string of weak economic reports in recent weeks has fed fears that the economy would fall back into recession, only slightly offset by Monday's government report that consumer spending had increased in July after four down months.

"Every single day, I'm pushing this economy forward, repairing the damage that's been done to the middle class over the past decade and promoting the growth we need to get out people back to work," Obama said in his statement.

Obama said action on the package of small business tax cuts and credit incentives is "one thing we know that we should do" as soon as possible. Republicans have been blocking the bill, calling it misguided.

However, Obama said it was being "held up by a partisan minority that won't even let it get to a vote."

"The bill is fully paid for. And there's no reason to block it besides pure partisan politics," he said.

WATCH: Obama calls out Senate Republicans

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Comments

[osage]

12:22 PM on 08/31/2010

TAX THE RICH AT THE PRE-REAGAN RATES...END CORPORATE MONOPOLIES...CREATE GREEN AND INFRASTRUCTURE JOBS...END TWO DISGRACEFULLY WASTEFUL AND TRACIALLY IMMORAL WARS...SINGLE PAYER HEALTH CARE...SHORTER TERM LIMITS…PUBLIC ONLY CAMPAIGN FINANCING!!!

[Lane]

07:59 PM on 08/31/2010

all the promises that were made during the campaign. I want them, too!

[DallasMike]

11:53 AM on 08/31/2010

Maybe someone should have raised their hand and reminded Obama that during the first six years of Bush's tenure the economy was booming. It was the last two years, after a national referendum on Iraq, that Democrats took over both houses and the economy began to falter. Adding Obama's liberal-socialistic policies to the already ailing economy turned a benign common cold into a case of full-blown pneumonia.

[Cookie Monsta]

12:17 PM on 08/31/2010

Things are not as instant as you make them out to be. Remember that Bush 'inherited' the dot com crash. The crash happened in 1999 - 2000 but the effects lingered until 2002. The economy was by no means booming during the bush years, unless you're very very rich. The average person did not prosper and have not prospered since 1980. Our economic foundations were systematically weakened from 1996 until 2006 and, like a sturdy building, didn't completely collapse until one year later. Please, if you really hate the way this country is going, take your fellow Texicans and secede! This country would be far better if you had stayed a Republic or a state of Mexico.

[Lane]

08:01 PM on 08/31/2010

DallasMike you must be joking! Were you out of the country? Bush and Cheney kept EVERYTHING a secret while they spent, spent, spent and borrowed BILLIONS from China and other countries. That is the mess that Obama inherited!

[jayburd]

10:57 AM on 08/31/2010

It's time the Democrats stopped bitching about obstruction and started doing something about it. Force and up-or-down vote!

[nicothebaker]

10:23 AM on 08/31/2010

This is not what will create jobs. Our economy is in the tank BECAUSE of President Obama. He can blame Bush until 2012, but that will not create jobs either. He has wasted billions of taxpayers money and it has been a big failure. His only defense to his failed policies is to attack critics as racist or bigots. He may not of watched GB rally, but his minions sure did and I'm sure they didn't like what they saw. 2010 will be bad for Dems and 2012 will be even worse.

[Cookie Monsta]

12:20 PM on 08/31/2010

So, who do you blame for NOLA? Still blaming the Hurricane for bursting the levies and destroying the city?

[DTree]

12:21 PM on 08/31/2010

The Recovery Act not only enacted one of the largest middle class tax cuts ever, it also made the single largest investment in green collar jobs in history. Green collar jobs were the last to be hit by the recession, and the first to recover. Today, wind turbine jobs outnumber coal mining jobs. Fixing a problem as bad as the one we are in requires a long view, not a shortsighted judgment about what is a "failure."

And how anyone can blame Obama for the failure of conservative ideology over the last 30 years is beyond me. Have you not been paying attention for the last three decades of failed republican policies? How did all that deregulation and tax cuts for the rich work out for our country? We saw in Fall 2008, when it all came crashing down.

One more thing: you should bear in mind that it is we the people who are calling Tea Partiers bigots, NOT the president. He as personally be circumspect on this issue, frequently telling interviewers that Tea Partiers are just concerned Americans. He gives them more credit than most of America does, that's for sure.

Tea Partiers believe they represent the views of most Americans, and one thing you are right about is we will see in November. Bragging about it does nothing, we just have to wait to see who the real majority is. My bet is that most voters think the Tea Party is too radical for their tastes.

[essar1]

12:14 AM on 09/01/2010

The irony about televangelist/actor/TV pitchman Glenn Beck's rally is that the majority of the 87,000 people on the mall got a tax CUT. Unfortunately, their ignorance, and sincere displeasure of a person with darker skin than their's occupying the Oval Office precludes them from even understanding that, let alone admitting it. The FACT is that the Recovery Act HAS created jobs, but it did more than that. How many of the people at Beckstock had their COBRA premiums CUT due to the Recovery Act.

Ultimately, the Obama presidency will be defined by the herculean efforts that were made during a systemic, major failure of our economy, one that was nearly 30 years in the making, where a select few made more money than any time in history and the majority's income and wealth was weakened.

[JoeTroll]

09:43 AM on 08/31/2010

Tax cuts are just no darn good when they come from Democrats!

[dwmulenex]

07:13 AM on 08/31/2010

It's the agony of governing in America that the winner of an election can't simply force through a "Programme" and be judged by it. And so Obama is drowning in personal attacks about his birth and religion, and drowning in economic near catastrophes amd foreign policy problems from North Korea to Venezuela while his opposition party--I mean the Democrats-- fail to stand up for much of anything. After November, the country will downright ungovernable, with narrower and unimportant majorities the best Obama can hope for in Congress. I hope Obama has some real fight in him for the right things he hasn't laid on the line these first two years and that he's prepared to use executive authorities for health care and financial reform, and to veto silly laws like tax breaks for the very rich, and cuts to social security and medicare that are keeping about 50 million people out of the direst need. How telling it is that of billions in relief for Louisiana after Katrina that billions went to the oil and gas industry to upgrade facilities not affected by the hurricane. That was Bush as his enterprise zone best, ladling the cream on top of the gravy. Obama did the same for the banks and hedge funds, looking like a deer in headlights just before the biggest Lexus on Wall Steret made it vension.

[Eileen Left]

12:50 AM on 08/31/2010

Hope and change we can believe in, if we can just get beyond the republican blockade!

[Charity101]

02:44 AM on 08/31/2010

Gosh ...Obama OWNS the House and Senate through December. WHY does he need the Republicans. Call me Silly, stupid or naive ...but the Dems Rule. Guess Obama has a problem ...the Dems !!!

[Eris23Skidoo]

04:28 AM on 08/31/2010

Silly, stupid, naive. There you go. You are called all three of them. If you knew the first thing about political science you would know that bills can be blocked by the minority party through the mechanism called the filibuster. Until Obama was elected, the filibuster had never been used more than once per year. The current batch of republicans use it with every bill that comes forward because they want to make sure that the black president doesn't get any credit for having gotten anything done. That way people like you can stand around and blame those who are NOT blocking progress.

[JoeTroll]

09:44 AM on 08/31/2010

Learn how our federal government actually works and you won't be silly, stupid, or naive anymore.

[nicothebaker]

12:48 AM on 08/31/2010

Has there ever been a President with less credibility after less than two years in office?

[Eris23Skidoo]

04:29 AM on 08/31/2010

Plenty. Has there been one in recent memory with SO MUCH credibility after two years in office? Not since Nixon, buddy.

[wespenn56]

09:48 AM on 08/31/2010

Any Republican other than Eisenhower and Nixon. Truth be told, the "fiscally conservative" types (other than the two mentioned) have caused net increases in the country's debt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_by_U.S._presidential_terms Now, the present GOP is actually blocking means to correct the gross mistakes of the last Republican administration and you're complaining?

[Yikes11]

12:05 AM on 08/31/2010

Tier V.

[ThankGodhesgone]

12:01 AM on 08/31/2010

Mr. President. Don't ask, demand! Tell them to lead, follow, or get out of the way.

You've played nice for too long with the people who are out to destroy you.

[Charity101]

02:43 AM on 08/31/2010

Gosh ...Obama OWNS the House and Senate through December. WHY does he need the Republicans. Call me Silly, stupid or naive ...but the Dems Rule. Guess Obama has a problem ...the Dems !!!

[ThankGodhesgone]

03:21 AM on 08/31/2010

Silly person. If that were true, he would already have signed the bill. I'm not going to call you names, but you can't just judge a person's vote depending on whether there is an R or D behind their name. Just look at Ben Nelson of Nebraska and the other blue dog dems. No friends of Obama, that is for sure.

[JoeTroll]

09:45 AM on 08/31/2010

Learn how our federal government actually works and you won't be silly, stupid, or naive anymore.

[dubbleplusgood]

11:47 PM on 08/30/2010

Republican at 8 AM: "Government needs to get out of our lives."
Republican at 8 PM: "Government is taking too long to fix our lives"

[markm8128]

12:17 AM on 08/31/2010

Fanned! ...for the Truth of it!

[new beginning]

08:23 AM on 08/31/2010

No, its the Dems who want government to fix their lives. Republicans want government to get out of the frickin way so that we can get back to work and get the economy moving again.

[JoeTroll]

09:46 AM on 08/31/2010

Bull. You can't speak to a Republican without hearing it whine that Obama "hasn't done enough to create jobs."

[mynamesyow]

11:51 AM on 08/31/2010

the Repubs idea of getting the Economy moving is getting it moving towards China...Communist China.
1) Borrow vast sums of money form them during the Bush Years...Check!
2)Corporate outsourcing of our jobs to China...Check!
3)Get all the good old Boy patriots to shop at the Great Wal-Mart of China...Check!
4)Create massive financial leverage for China due to uncontrolled GOP borrow and spend....Check!
(How much did Clinton borrow from China again? How much did he leave in the bank for Bush when he rolled in???)

[msgirlintn]

11:36 PM on 08/30/2010

It's about time that the President starts calling out Republicans for their antics. It just needs to be carried on the nightly news programs so those people that aren't watching cable or reading HP know that it is the Repubicans that are trying to keep the economy in this shape simply to try to win votes in November.

It is ridiculous that Republicans say all the time how concerned that they are about "small business" but yet they won't let a bill to help small businesses even come to the floor for a vote.

Republicans had rather see the country fall into a depression than see Obama have a successful presidentcy.

[Eris23Skidoo]

04:31 AM on 08/31/2010

Republicans hate small business anyway. They just pay lip service because it fits their meme that small business is what makes America great. They are total corporatists, however, and the corpse are the natural enemy of the small business. They can't have both so they just pay lip service to the little guy while raking in cash from the big guy.

[msgirlintn]

04:47 AM on 08/31/2010

Eris,

So true. Wish I could fan you again. But I will fave you!

[wizzardly]

11:32 PM on 08/30/2010

Obama has rammed down our throats ObamaCare with his super majorities. He doesn't need repubs. When his own dems are running for cover and his power has dwindled to nil he has to lash out at someone...repubs and Bush again. He missed the golden opportunity to cement his place and the dems by wasting HIS magical time on carelessly written and thought out ObamaCare and Stimulus (among others). Trust has been lost.

[msgirlintn]

11:43 PM on 08/30/2010

wizzardly,

From your language, it is clear that you are a teabagger Republican that doesn't care if Obama succeeds or fails, but hopefully to you he will fail.

The healthcare bill wasn't rammed down anybody's throat. They took a year to debate it and there are Republican amendments in the bill, but Republicans voted against it as usual.


There are millions of jobs that have been saved or created by the stimulus. You teabaggers need to turn Faux News off and get some facts for a change.

[emlr]

09:51 AM on 08/31/2010

The trolls are out marking as abusive any post that tells the truth. F&F'd

[Bumpkins]

11:47 PM on 08/30/2010

So you say, not me....I trust.

[Jim Pasterczyk]

10:47 PM on 08/30/2010

It's not a blockade, it's sabotage. They want you to fail and they don't care if the rest of the country goes down with you.

[KAL-EL]

10:11 PM on 08/30/2010

More and more obama seems to be Forrest gumping his way through the recovery much like fdr did the depression.

fdr was thankful for a world conflagration to get our minds off of his bumbling economic incompetence.

Is obama secretly banking on the same deus ex machina ?

[Bumpkins]

11:36 PM on 08/30/2010

One word answer....no.

[Eris23Skidoo]

04:36 AM on 08/31/2010

I don't think you know a thing about FDR.

[KAL-EL]

09:07 AM on 08/31/2010

Well I consider fdr my favorite communist.

Btw: What exactly am I ignorant on about him?