Senate Republicans obstruct small business job creation

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Republican politicians always say they support "small business." Only the GOP definition of "small business" is actually corporations, preferably global corporations, not the "mom and pop" small businesses that are not incorporated and are taxed at individual rates.

It is small businesses that are the engine of job creation. Small businesses are invested in their local communities, unlike global corporations that will move their operations (and jobs) to any country where they can exploit cheap labor and take advantage of lax employment, worker safety and environmental regulations and tax havens.

On Thursday, Senate Republicans gave small businesses and the millions of unemployed Americans in need of work the middle finger. The GOP fall election strategy of preventing economic recovery and job growth so they can blame Democrats for the lack of progress due to their own GOP obstructionism was is in full view for all to see. Bill to ease small-business loans comes up short in Senate vote:

President Obama's election-year jobs agenda suffered a new setback Thursday when Senate Republicans blocked a bill creating a $30 billion government fund to help open up lending for credit-starved small businesses.

The fund would be available to community banks with less than $10 billion in assets to help them increase lending to small businesses. The bill would combine the fund with about $12 billion in tax breaks aimed at small businesses.

Democrats say banks should be able to use the lending fund to leverage up to $300 billion in loans, helping to loosen tight credit markets. Some Republicans, however, likened it to the unpopular bailout of the financial industry.

Democrats had wanted to pass the bill before Congress leaves town for summer vacation, but that won't happen with the House scheduled to adjourn today. The Senate is in session for another week, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said there would be no more votes until Monday.

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The vote was 58 to 42, with all 41 Republicans voting to continue the filibuster. Reid, D-Nev., also voted to continue the filibuster, but only as a procedural step that allows him to call up the bill again.

Congressional Democrats started the year with ambitious plans to pass a series of bills designed to create jobs, but they have little to show for it due to GOP obstructionism and a record number of GOP filibusters in the U.S. Senate.

Once again, when there are 59 votes to pass a law it should become law. The filibuster is not in the Constitution nor statutory law, it is simply a Senate rule – an antiquated rule that should be changed to make the Senate more democratic. The U.S. Senate has become a plutocratic millionaire's boys and girls club that is out of touch with average Americans and no longer represents the best interests of Americans. GOP obstructionism is a tyranny of the minority protecting the financial interests of their corporate overlords and the banksters of Wall Street.