Obama proposes boosts for small businesses
President Obama offered Congress a $48 billion legislative package Tuesday to accelerate small-business growth that includes ideas previously offered by Republican lawmakers, an effort to garner bipartisan support in an election year.
Obama’s proposals, which build on the Startup America initiative the administration launched last year, include eliminating taxes on capital gains from investments in small businesses, providing a 10 percent tax credit for companies that create jobs or increase wages this year and ending country-specific immigration caps in order to attract highly skilled workers.
In his State of the Union address last week, Obama touted small businesses as a core element of his pledge to create an economy that strengthens the middle class. Yet administration officials said the number of new businesses that have been launched annually has fallen by 23 percent in recent years.
Also this month, Obama asked Congress to give him the authority to restructure government agencies to streamline regulatory requirements for small businesses, and he elevated the director of the Small Business Administration to Cabinet level to emphasize his commitment.
full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-proposes-boosts-for-small-businesses/2012/01/31/gIQASN6EgQ_story.html
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