The President:
All across America, even
today, on a Saturday,
millions of Americans
are hard at work.
They're running the mom and
pop stores and neighborhood
restaurants we know and love.
They're building tiny startups
with big ideas that could
revolutionize an industry, maybe
even transform our economy.
They are the more than half
of all Americans who work at a
small business, or
own a small business.
And they embody the
spirit of possibility,
the relentless work ethic, and
the hope for something better
that is at the heart
of the American Dream.
They also represent a segment of
our economy that has been hard
hit by this recession.
Over the past couple of years,
small businesses have lost
hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Many have struggled to get the
loans they need to finance their
inventories and make payroll.
Many entrepreneurs can't get
financing to start a small
business in the first place.
And many more are discouraged
from even trying because of the
crushing costs of health care -- costs that have forced too many
small businesses to
cut benefits, shed jobs,
or shut their doors for good.
Small businesses have always
been the engine of our economy,
creating 65% of all new jobs over the past decade and a half,
and they must be at the
forefront of our recovery.
That's why the Recovery Act
was designed to help small
businesses expand
and create jobs.
It's provided $5 billion
worth of tax relief,
as well as temporarily reducing
or eliminating fees on SBA loans
and guaranteeing some of
these loans up to 90%,
which has supported nearly $13
billion in new lending to more
than 33,000 businesses.
In addition, our health reform
plan will allow small businesses
to buy insurance for their
employees through an insurance
exchange, which may offer better
coverage at lower costs --
and we'll provide tax credits
for those that choose to do so.
And this past week, I called on
Congress to increase the maximum
size of various SBA loans, so
that more small business owners
can set up shop and
grow their operations.
I also announced that we'll be
taking additional steps through
our Financial Stability plan to
make more credit available to
the small local and community
banks that so many small
businesses depend on -- the banks who know their borrowers,
who gave them their first
loan and watched them grow.
The goal here is to get credit
where it's needed most --
to businesses that support
families, sustain communities,
and create the jobs
that power our economy.
That's why we enacted the
Financial Stability Plan in the
first place, back when many of
our largest banks were on the
verge of collapse; our
credit markets were frozen;
and it was nearly impossible for
ordinary people to get loans to
buy a car or home
or pay for college.
The idea was to jumpstart
lending and keep our economy
from spiraling
into a depression.
Fortunately, it worked.
Thanks to the
American taxpayers,
we've now achieved the stability
we need to get our economy
moving forward again.
But while credit may be more
available for large businesses,
too many small business owners
are still struggling to get the
credit they need.
These are the very taxpayers who
stood by America's banks in a
crisis -- and now it's time
for our banks to stand by
creditworthy small businesses, and make the loans they need to
open their doors, grow their operations, and create new jobs.
It's time for those banks to fulfill their responsibility to
help ensure a wider recovery,
a more secure system,
and a more broadly
shared prosperity.
And we're going to take every appropriate step to encourage
them to meet those responsibilities.
Because if it's one
thing we've learned,
it's that here in America,
we rise and fall together.
Our economy as a whole can't move ahead if small businesses
and the middle class
continue to fall behind.
This country was
built by dreamers.
They're the workers who took
a chance on their desire to be
their own boss.
The part-time inventors
who became the fulltime entrepreneurs.
The men and women who have
helped build the American middle
class, keeping alive that
most American of ideals --
that all things are
possible for all people,
and we're limited only by the
size of our dreams and our
willingness to work for them.
We need to do everything we can
to ensure that they can keep
taking those risks,
acting on those dreams,
and building the enterprises
that fuel our economy and make
us who we are.
Thanks.