Obama defends new budget as economic blueprint for future

2009-03-18 04:30:04  

·Obama describing his 3.6 trillion dollars budget as "an economic blueprint for our future." ·The budget assumes a deficit of 1.75 trillion dollars for the 2010 fiscal year. ·Obama said the government will not cut back investments linked to long-term prosperity.

    WASHINGTON, March 17 (Xinhua) --

U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday defended his 3.6-trillion-dollar budget, describing it as "an economic blueprint for our future -- a foundation on which to build a recovery that lasts."

    The budget for the 2010 fiscal year, Obama's first budget submitted to Congress last month, seeks to shore up the nation's economy that has been in a recession since December 2007 while also overhauling health care, energy and education.

    "To kick these problems down the road for another four years or another eight years would be to continue the same irresponsibility that led us to this point," Obama said in an appearance with the heads of the congressional budget committees.

    "That's not why I ran for this office. I didn't come here to pass on our problems to the next president or the next generation," he added.

    This budget does not attempt to solve every problem or address every issue, Obama said, pushing back against criticism that he is trying to take on too many issues at once.

    "Because of the massive deficit we inherited and the enormous costs of this financial crisis, we have made some tough choices that will cut our deficit in half by the end of my first term and reduce it by 2 trillion dollars over the next decade," he said.

    "What we will not cut back, however, are those investments that are directly linked to our long-term prosperity," said the president.

    He urged Congress to pass the budget, which assumes a deficit of 1.75 trillion dollars for the 2010 fiscal year, which begins on Oct. 1, 2009.

    In this moment of enormous challenges, the American people "are watching and waiting for us to lead," he said.

    "Let's show them that we're equal to this task before us. Let's pass a budget that puts this nation on the road to lasting prosperity," he urged.

    U.S. federal budget deficit soared to 569 billion dollars in the first four months of the current fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30 this year, marking the highest on record for this period.

    The deficit for October 2008 through January 2009 was six times more than the red ink during the year-ago period and has already surpassed the imbalance for all of last year, which was 454.8 billion dollars, a full-year record.

    The bipartisan Congressional Budget Office has projected that the budget deficit will hit an all-time high of 1.2 trillion dollars in the current fiscal year. The estimate doesn't include the cost of Obama's 787-billion-dollar economic stimulus bill.

Obama administration unveils plan to unlock credit for small businesses

2009-03-17 04:25:33  

    WASHINGTON, March 16 (Xinhua) --

The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a plan to help unlock credit for the nation's small businesses, which have generated about 70 percent of net new jobs annually over the past decade.

    "We are taking immediate action to help ensure that credit -- the lifeblood of America's small businesses and its economy -- gets flowing again to entrepreneurs and business owners," said U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who with President Barack Obama unveiled the plan at the White House.

    The plan includes 730 million dollars from the president's 787-billion-dollar economic stimulus package passed by Congress in February, with reduced small-business lending fees and an increase on the guarantee for some Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to 90 percent.

    Under the plan, the government will take aggressive steps to boost bank liquidity with more than 10 billion dollars aimed at unfreezing the secondary credit market -- a key to making it easier for small businesses to borrow.

    The nation's 21 largest banks that have received government bailout money must report monthly on how much lending they do to small businesses.

    All other banks taking federal taxpayer help have to report quarterly on small business loans. Even banks that are not taking government funds are being required by the administration to make an extra effort to increase small business lending.

    "As the flow of credit has dried up during this recession, small business owners who were prudent and responsible have been set back by the behavior of others in our financial system who were not," Geithner said.

    Businesses with strong credit histories have seen loan applications denied due to conditions that have nothing to do with their own actions and are now struggling to expand their businesses, make their payments or even keep workers on their payrolls, he said.

    "As a result, while the U.S. Small Business Administration typically guarantees about 20 billion dollars in loans annually, new lending is trending below 10 billion dollars this year," the secretary said.

    In brief comments with Geithner before the official announcement, Obama called small businesses "one of the biggest drivers of employment that we have."

    He had pressed his economic team to specifically help owners of small businesses and thaw credit, Obama said, adding that the newest initiatives were only a first step. 

Editor: Mu Xuequan