Weekly remarks: Obama salutes small business, Mike Johanns says health reforms mean Medicare cuts

Remarks by President Obama, as provided by the White House

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 start-ups 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 percent 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 percent, 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 jump-start 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 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 full-time 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.   ###

Remarks by Sen. Mike Johanns, as provided by the Senate Republican Communications Center

Hi, I'm Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska.

My Republican colleagues and I have a simple test for reforming health care: Will this legislation improve your life?

Here's what I mean: Americans face rising health care costs, and it's increasingly difficult to get access to health care. True health care reform should decrease what you're paying, and make it easier for you to receive care. That should be a no-brainer.

Yet current proposals in Congress don't accomplish this goal, and could even have the opposite effect, negatively impacting each and every one of us.

To the working mother with a disabled child who uses a Flexible Spending Account and those pre-tax dollars for treatment, medicine, and therapy for your child: this plan will end these accounts as we know them today, and result in increased out of pocket costs.

To the factory worker, who has forgone pay raises for the promise of better insurance benefits for you and your family: your health insurance will be taxed and your premiums will go up.

To the recent college graduate burdened with student loans: you'll be forced to buy health insurance the government mandates, and if you refuse, you'll be hit with a penalty.

To our seniors, who wish to receive care in the comfort of their homes: funding for hospice care and home health care services would be cut.

My state, Nebraska, stands to lose $126 million for home health services, and many of the 38 Nebraska hospices would be in danger of literally shutting their doors. Nearly $500 billion will be cut from Medicare nationwide.

The bottom line is this: we're nearing 10 percent unemployment. We have a record budget deficit, and many families are working hard just to put food on the table and to pay the bills. Yet, there's no doubt about it: these proposals will negatively impact pocketbooks and paychecks across America.

President Obama has promised open deliberations in front of C-SPAN cameras for all Americans to learn how reform will impact them. However, a 1,500 page bill, full of carve-outs and backroom deals, is currently being brokered behind closed doors.

We're about to significantly alter one-sixth of our economy—now is not the time to shut Americans out.

Reports of this deal-making are shameful. Why do Michigan, Rhode Island, Oregon and Nevada get special deals on Medicaid costs? Why do New Yorkers with Cadillac plans get a pass on paying the tax? It is shameful.

So now, as a select few deliberate over legislation that will mean higher premiums across the board; higher taxes for hard-working families; and cuts to Medicare for senior citizens; I ask: will this improve your life?

Republicans are in favor of lowering costs, reforming insurance so Americans can get care when they need it, and providing assistance for those who can't afford insurance.

See, we stand ready with ideas to tackle those challenges. But hundreds of pages filled with backroom deals, higher insurance premiums, higher taxes, and cuts to Medicare are not the answer.

I am Senator Mike Johanns of Nebraska. Thank you for your time.   ###

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Related items:

Weekly remarks, Oct. 17

Weekly remarks, Oct. 10

Weekly remarks, Oct. 3

Photo: Ron Edmonds / Associated Press; Johann's office; Associated Press.

Comments

[AntonioSosa]

Thank you, Mike Johanns, you have spokpen for the millions of us who are terrified at the Obamacare scam that Obama and his accomplices are bent on forcing us to swallow.

Both the Obamacare scam and the cap and trade scam would further contribute to destroy small businesses and jobs. Obama and his accomplices must be stopped if the U.S. is to survive as a free country.

Fortunately, as we can see in the town halls and marches, most Americans have not been dumbed down and they will do whatever necessary to defend themselves, their children and grandchildren from Obama and his plans to transform the U.S. into another Cuba or Venezuela

[Benigna Marko]

This is so appropriate. The best thing is to get that so amazing recognition by our President. Good job.
Benigna Marko

[Ange Lobue, MD, MPH, BSPHARM]

As a 72 year-old physician who proudly delivers and receives Medicare services, I strongly believe that Medicare for all Americans is a MORAL issue, not an economic, social or political football to be used to further divide this country on ideological grounds. The prevention of suffering and death are foundations of all honorable religions and philosophies and it is time for America to demonstrate that it continues to be an honorable country devoted to the right to a life without suffering, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all of its citizens.

Respectfully and compassionately submitted,

Ange Lobue, MD, MPH, BSPharm
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology
Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
trinidadca@gmail.com

[Evelyn Guzman]

It is good to be recognized by no less than the number 1 man in the US. We know we work very hard and in so doing we help keep the country going. This recession has been hard on us but we still keep plugging away. And with President Obama encouraging us, we cannot fail. We will ride this recession out.

Evelyn Guzman
http://www.homebusinesssteps.com (If you want to visit, just click but if it doesn’t work, copy and paste it onto your browser.)

[My2cents]

Mr. Johanns, Thank you. I agree. Reform, not Re-make. Overhaul, not Overstep. Reduce spending, not increase deficit on the backs of the middle-class and to the detriment of the aging baby boomers.

[steve rodriguez]

Obama is afraid of big business! Funny but that where the jobs come from!

[Mike Munoz]

"To the recent college graduate burdened with student loans: you'll be forced to buy health insurance the government mandates, and if you refuse, you'll be hit with a penalty."

And this is Obama's fault? NO, it was the republicans who blocked the the public option which would insure all Americans. Instead we have this muddied failure of a reform being pushed through. Since the penalty for not having insurance will not be as costly as the insurance itself, many people will not even buy insurance and simply pay the fine every year while still not having any health insurance. This will end up just being an indirect tax increase on the poor THANKS GOP!

While we are on the subject of the GOP trying to blocking true reform lets talk about student loans. The Student Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act (SAFRA) passed in the house and will be deliberated in the senate soon. But just like in the house, senate REPUBLICANS are expected to try to block this bill because they want to protect the banks that have been exploiting students with zero risk loans and reaping easy profits from needy families.

The next generation of American politics is here and there is no room for ideological zealots anymore. The GOP is dying but they will cling to their empty rhetoric until the very end.

Obama 2012