NSBA president endorses Obama's jobs bill

CNN:

The president of the National Small Business Association on Sunday morning endorsed congressional Democrats' and President Obama's small business jobs bill.

The bill will "will free up a lot of credit for small companies at a very low cost of capital for the government," Todd McCracken told Candy Crowley on CNN's State of the Union.

"Putting money in the pockets of both consumers and small business people so they can take advantage of the opportunities when they come along is crucial," McCracken said.

The bill authorizes the creation of a $30 billion lending fund that would deliver ultra-cheap capital to community banks. It also provides $12 billion in tax relief to small businesses between 2010 and 2020, and $1.5 billion in grants to state lending programs.

Senate Republicans blocked the bill from a vote before Congress' August recess. They oppose the bill because they say it doesn't do enough to encourage small businesses to create jobs.

McCracken criticized Obama for not acting earlier.

"We are talking about small business lending now...this should have been on the table a year and a half ago," McCracken said. "And now they are also talking about a payroll tax holiday–we were talking about that also a year and a half ago, and we think something like that should have been in the first stimulus package."

McCracken also said it is the "wrong time" to allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. He agreed with Vice President Joe Biden's recent statement that only a minority of small businesses would be affected by the expiration of the tax cuts, but said the 3 percent that are affected have the greatest potential to create jobs.

"We think that Congress should at least temporarily extend these tax cuts," McCracken said.

"The companies that do pay this tax, and there is a minority of small companies for sure, but the ones that do are the most successful ones who are most likely to be growing jobs and the ones that we want to continue to be successful," McCracken said.

AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka disagreed, arguing, "the vast majority are created by the other 97 percent [of small businesses]."

On "Fox News Sunday," Arizona Sen. John McCain lambasted Democrats for their willingness to allow the tax cuts to expire.

"Let's get the old class warfare out there, let's attack the rich," McCain said.

"… The first thing we need to do is extend the tax cuts that are already out there," McCain said. Americans "have love lost confidence in this president, this administration's ability to get the economy going again."