On the recordSeptember 23, 2010
I support the rule. It's taken far too long to overcome the obstruction to this bill. This obstruction has impeded $30 billion in credit for small businesses. The credit squeeze has been one of the largest obstacles they are facing today, small businesses. We have been told time after time after time that without access to credit, small businesses cannot grow. I am pleased that we continue to focus on job creation through the engine of our economy. Small businesses have generated 64 percent of new jobs over the last 15 years. But we must do more. We must address the elephant in the room. And here's the elephant in the room: we must address the expiration of the middle class tax cuts, which alone will help 98 percent of all Americans and 97 percent of small business. Small businesses have been struggling for decades, not just the last few years, because they have been the victim of previous administrations' and past Congresses' priorities that placed Wall Street and big banks over Main Street small businesses and their community banks. And here's the rub, and you can't deny it: these priorities have led to a 20 percent decline in small business market shares. And they have lost that to corporate welfare. Look at the record before the recession. Twenty percent more of market loss. That did not fall out of the sky. And I blame both parties. Neither party is privileged to virtue here. No one has a monopoly on this. This Congress recognized the problem.
