President Obama asked Congress on Wednesday to help community banks lend money to small businesses — pillars of the U.S. economy hit hard by the recession.
“Major banks need no new assistance,” Mr. Obama said while visiting a small business in suburban Washington. “Make more money available so banks can watch [small businesses] grow from down the street, not Wall Street.”
Mr. Obama said the owners of Metropolitan Archives in Landover were fraternity brothers and childhood friends who embody the American spirit.
“They had a good idea … that is now a business that stores and delivers records across the world,” he said.
Mr. Obama wants Congress to increase the cap to $5 million on two major small-business loans — the 7A and 504.
The most common loan, the 7A, provides money for inventory, land and buildings.
Mr. Obama also asked Congress to make more money available for smaller loans, known as “micro loans,” and said Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will lead an upcoming conference on “what steps we can take to get more credit for small business.”
He said the owners of Metropolitan Archives used a Small Business Administration loan to buy their building.
Mr. Obama said smaller banks must put together a plan to lend to small businesses to become eligible for the additional, lower-interest credit.
The president said small businesses continue to struggle with such problems as not meeting payrolls and no credit to expand, as other sectors of the U.S. economy recover.
He said that small businesses account for 65 percent of all new jobs and that 50 percent of U.S. workers either are employed by or own a small business. However, 2.4 million small-business jobs were lost in the recession.
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