Other prominent features of Barack Obama's Small Business Emergency Rescue Plan include:
- Increase access to capital - Obama will
work to help more entrepreneurs secure both traditional and alternative means of financing, expand the network of lenders, make interest rates for SBA loans more competitive with the private sector, and simplify the loan approval process.
- Create public-private business incubators - Obama will support small businesses and spur job growth by creating a national network of public-private business incubators which will offer help
designing business plans, provide physical space, identify and address problems affecting all small businesses within a given community, and give advice on a wide range of business practices, including reducing overhead costs.
- Reinvigorate the SBA - Since 2001, the SBA’s budget has been cut by the Bush administration more deeply than any other federal agency. Obama pledges to restore the SBA’s budget, strengthen its capacity, and ensure that the small business community plays a vital role in government policymaking.
- Promote small business ownership in communications industry - As president, Obama will support efforts to achieve diverse
media ownership, particularly in an era of increased media concentration.
Obama has joined Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) in calling on the FCC to immediately address the issues of minority, women and small business media ownership before taking up a second review of wider media ownership rules.
- Strengthen small business programs targeting Women, service-disabled veterans and minorities - Obama will strengthen programs that provide access to capital and contracting opportunities to minority- and women-owned businesses, support outreach programs that help minority, service-disabled
veteran, and women-owned business owners apply for and are awarded loans, and work to encourage the growth and capacity of minority and women-owned firms.
Obama will also implement a Women-Owned Business contracting program to create greater opportunities for women business owners who would like to do business with the federal government – a program that was signed into law by President Bill Clinton, but has yet to be implemented by the Bush Administration.
- RELATED READING
- Obama's 12-Point Plan to Repair the U.S. Economy
- Barack Obama's Plan for Financial Markets Reform
- McCain and Republicans as Fox, Financial Markets as Chicken Coop
