GOP To Small Business: Drop Dead

A lie repeated enough becomes the truth to many.  Such is the case with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and claims that it's just another "liberal mouthpiece."  (Seriously, are there any liberal newspapers left outside of the Capital Times... and that's not even a newspaper anymore, just an online shell of its former self.)  Still, this morning's full width Page One headline trumpeted the misery of small business owners with a lead paragraph worthy of gold stars from Faux News:

As politicians fight, businesses wait for a 'go' sign - Businesses afraid to hire or make any long-range plans
Economists and business owners say they've never seen anything like it: The Bush tax cuts are expiring, health care reform is confusing, deficits are exploding, cap-and-trade is looming - and political leaders are too busy fighting among themselves to offer any reliable vision of the future.
Little wonder, then, that businesses are frozen, afraid to hire or make any other long-term plans.

Seriously, if you gave the newspaper's front door key to Scott Walker and Ron Johnson they couldn't have written more flattering fiction.

The more complete story is that a major fix for small businesses has languished in Congress because Walker & Johnson's "Party of No" would rather delay a recovery that might interfere with partisan wet dreams of a November tidal wave.  The story of that bill, held up by the usual Republican obstruction, could be found at the bottom of the USA Today's Business front.

Small businesses have put hiring, supply buying and real estate expansion on hold as they wait out the vote on a small-business-aid bill that stalled in the Senate earlier this summer.
The much-debated legislation offers tax breaks and waived loan fees.

Many other businesses have paused expansion as they wait for the outcome of the bill, says Bob Coleman, publisher of the Coleman Report, which provides information on small-business lending.
Some businesses can save thousands of dollars on the waived loan-fee provision alone, and they are thinking, " 'I might as well hold off and save the money,' " he says.
What's in the bill:

• An increase on government guarantees to as much as 90% on some of the most popular loans. That would mean a little less pressure on banks if a company defaults, because the government would insure a larger percentage of the loan, says Coleman. With current guarantees topping out at 75%, "there is a bit more exposure" for banks, he says.
• Community banks with assets of $10 billion or less would be able to tap into the $30 billion fund when making small-business loans. About 8,000 banks would be eligible.
• Small businesses would get about $18 billion in tax breaks, such as larger write-offs on capital equipment investments, and get credits for new hires.
• The SBA would be able to increase the maximum for certain loans to $5 million from $2 million.

This bill provides the access to capital that countless small business owners are begging for.  They have plans, they have products, they want to hire people... but when Big Banks learned they couldn't piss away our money anymore on Wall Street, they decided to clam up and place bets that Republicans could smooth-talk their way back into power... and take a big dump on any effort to stitch together the Rule Book that got shredded by the Bushies last time around. 
Why aren't we hearing more stories about this bill's status in legislative purgatory?  You know why.  So when you hear that there's no Democratic plan to help create jobs and help small businesses, you'll know that's another lie as big as the one about the so-called "liberal media."