Political Quotes

“I am delighted to partner with my colleague from Louisiana. Senator Landrieu has been a passionate and effective advocate for small business across this country. She has worked incredibly hard to drive through this small business jobs legislation, recognizing that the success of our economy is going to rise or fall on the success of our small businesses. That is what brings us together tonight. We have come to talk about the small business lending fund, which is an essential component of assisting our small businesses. Small businesses employ one-half of our Nation's workforce. However, less than one-third of small businesses today are reporting their credit needs are being met. Indeed, 59 percent now rely on credit cards to finance their daily operations. That is an increase of about 15 percent from where we were at the end of 2009. I can tell my colleagues that at every townhall meeting I hold, folks stand to talk about how their credit lines have been cut or they have a business opportunity for which they normally could easily get a loan from a longstanding banking partner, but they are not able to get that loan. Often, the reason the banks cannot make the loan is because they are at their leverage limit. There are legal limits for every dollar they hold, how many can they lend out. If they are at that limit, they cannot make a new loan no matter how good the opportunity. This is a losing situation because our community banks are right on Main Street.”