Joe Applauds Passage of Small Business Bill

Condemns Toomey’s Silence on Measure that Will Create Jobs, Support Middle Class; Assails his Archconservative Allies for Obstructing Vital Legislation

MEDIA, Pa. – U.S. Senate candidate Joe Sestak today hailed final passage of the Small Business Jobs Act, a bill that will provide $12 billion in tax credits for small businesses, increase access to capital, and create half a million jobs. The small business legislation had been stalled in the Senate for months, having initially passed the House with Admiral Sestak’s support on October 29 and again on June 17. Following today’s final vote by the House, the measure goes to the White House to await President Obama’s signature.

“We need to put people back to work and get our economy moving by investing in small businesses and the middle class,” said Joe. “This bill is an important first step. Working families are looking for leadership, not obstruction. Pennsylvania deserves a senator who will place the middle class ahead of Wall Street, not one who’s only interested in standing up for big business and the super-rich.”

As Vice Chairman of the House Small Business, Admiral Sestak has long been a leading advocate for small business owners and employees. He understands that small businesses create 80 percent of all new jobs and employ 99 percent of the private sector workforce.

That’s why he has been  a strong supporter of this legislation, which will reward those who invest in small businesses and help entrepreneurs compete with large businesses. It’s also why he has proposed an additional small business tax credit that could create 5 million jobs in just 2 years, along with a significant package of investment incentives and loan guarantees that will help jumpstart growth.

Yet, despite the clear benefits of this legislation for small businesses and those who want to work, Congressman Toomey remains silent about the bill, even in the face of bipartisan support.

“It’s clear that Congressman Toomey is more committed to his extreme ideology than to working families in Pennsylvania,” said Sestak campaign spokesman Jonathon Dworkin. “He’s shown that he can always be counted on to support Wall Street at the expense of the middle class. But he refuses to reach across the aisle and work with Democrats and even moderate Republicans in support of tax breaks for small businesses. He just doesn’t seem to understand ordinary Pennsylvanians.”

In the past, Congressman Toomey has opposed tax credits for small businesses and voted to provide $43 billion in incentives for companies that ship American jobs overseas. He voted to slash the Small Business Administration budget in half, all the while defending $1.6 billion in unmerited bonuses for bailed-out executives and supporting at least $650 billion in deficit spending to extend tax breaks for the super-rich.

“Toomey’s Republican colleagues held up the important provisions of this bill twice – in October and again in June. Without these actions, the fee elimination and expanded loan guarantees would expire and the vital tax cuts would be obstructed, and the job creation benefits will not materialize,” said Dworkin. “If he was in the Senate, Toomey’s voting record indicates he’d be its second-most conservative member – so we can only guess how much longer he’d delay this essential bill. He’s so eager to join in the obstructionism that he’s falsely claimed to have filibustered a different bill on the House floor – despite the fact that such a procedure doesn’t even exist in the House. We don’t need more obstructionism and blind ideology. We need real, practical solutions.”

Admiral Sestak’s vs. Congressman Toomey’s Records on Small Business

Congressman Toomey

Spent five years in Congress championing efforts that successfully cut the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) budget by 50% ($507 million in 2005 vs. $1.1 billion in 2000);

Voted to eliminate funding and increase small business fees on one of the SBA’s most popular small business loan program (7(a) loans);

Voted to give only 5% of the 2001/2002 tax cuts to small businesses, but 53% to the top 1% of earners;

Helped write the law deregulating Wall Street that got us into the economic disaster we are in;

Voted for corporate tax loopholes to help big businesses close factories in the United States and ship jobs overseas; and

Supports a flat tax that favors the wealthiest Americans and renders small businesses unable to compete against major corporations.

Admiral Sestak

Supports a 15% refundable tax credit for small businesses that add jobs, add hours, and raise wages;
Authored and passed legislation to ensure fairness in federal contracting by requiring bundling analysis of federal mega-contracts to create more small business opportunities;

Authored legislation to support entrepreneurship by enhancing Small Business Development Centers, including Women Business Development Centers, and the Service Corps for Retired Executives (SCORE), recognizing small business create more than 70 % of all jobs and every dollar spent on these programs provides a $2.87 return to the Treasury;

Has voted to increase the maximum SBA 7(a) loan size to $5 million — $5.5 million for manufacturing firms — and raise the cap on SBA microloans, as well as to extend the fee elimination and expand the loan guarantees from 75% to 90% or more; and

Proposes strengthening and making permanent the SBA Community Express Lending Program, one of the SBA’s most successful initiatives, which provides micro-loans for small businesses owned by women, Veterans and minorities.