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| U.S. President Barack Obama delivers a statement in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington D.C., capital of the United States, Aug. 30, 2010. Obama said on Monday that his economic team had discussed additional steps to move the economy forward, and he again urged the Congress to pass a bill that would "cut more taxes and make available more loans" to small businesses. (Xinhua/Zhang Jun) |
WASHINGTON, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that his economic team has discussed additional steps to move the economy forward, urging again the Congress to pass a bill that would "cut more taxes and make available more loans" to small businesses.
"Too many businesses are still struggling; too many Americans are still looking for work; and too many communities are far from being whole again," Obama said in a statement at the White House after finishing a meeting with his economic team.
"My economic team is hard at work in identifying additional measures that could make a difference in both promoting growth and hiring in the short term, and increasing our economy's competitiveness in the long term," he said.
The U.S. Commerce Department on Friday revised the economic growth to an annual rate of 1.6 percent in the second quarter of this year from an initially estimated pace of 2.4 percent. This is the slowest quarterly growth since the U.S. economic activities began to pick up in the second half of last year.
Despite the president's repeated reassurance of giving the economy further stimulus, there seems not much left in the government's policy bullets, and another round of large-scale fiscal stimulus is almost impossible in the near future considering the already-huge budget deficits.
But there are still some small-scale initiatives that the president insisted could help the economy: extending the tax cuts for the middle class that are set to expire this year; redoubling investment in clean energy and rebuilding infrastructure; further tax cuts to encourage businesses to put their capital to work creating jobs.
"There's one thing we know we should do -- something that should be Congress' first order of business when it gets back -- and that is making it easier for our small businesses to grow and hire," said Obama.
He called on the Republicans to stop blocking a bill that aims to boost credit to small businesses and spur job growth. The legislation provides 30 billion dollars to small banks and aims to boost lending to small businesses. It also contains tax cuts and an exemption from capital gains taxes for small businesses that qualify.
