WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama exhorted Congress on Monday to make passage of a long-languishing small-business aid package its first order of business when it returns next month from its summer break.
“I ask Senate Republicans to drop the blockade,” Obama said in the Rose Garden after meeting with his economic advisers.
Acknowledging that the economy remains fragile, the president said he would also have other specific ideas in the days ahead.
He mentioned extending Bush tax cuts due to expire this year for households making less than $250,000 a year, upping the nation’s investment in clean energy, rebuilding more roads and highways, and tax cuts designed to keep jobs in the United States.
“My economic team is hard at work 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.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs later said that in addition to initiatives already unveiled that are bogged down in Congress, the administration would roll out a variety of targeted measures designed to spur the economy and create an environment conducive to hiring.
None of the measures will be as major as last year’s stimulus bill, Gibbs said.
“There’s only so much that can be done,” he said. “Those in America are frustrated. Those in the West Wing are frustrated” about the slow pace of recovery and an unemployment rate hovering at 9.5 percent.
A recent string of weak economic reports has fed fears that the economy could fall back into recession, only slightly offset by Monday’s government report that consumer spending had increased in July after four down months.
“Every single day, I’m pushing this economy forward, repairing the damage that’s been done to the middle class over the past decade and promoting the growth we need to get our people back to work,” Obama said in his statement.
Obama said action on the package of small-business tax cuts and credit incentives is “one thing we know that we should do” as soon as possible. Republicans have been blocking the bill, calling it misguided.
“The bill is fully paid for. And there’s no reason to block it besides pure partisan politics,” Obama said.
Paul Dales at Capital Economics said the economy is likely to remain in a slow-growth rut for several years, likely to average around 2 percent for the rest of this year and through all of 2011 and 2012 as well.
That’s far below the rates needed to drive the 9.5 percent unemployment rate lower. It takes stronger growth — around 5 percent for a full year — to drive down the unemployment rate by 1 percentage point.
“This is a pretty weak recovery coming out of a recession that was deeper and more painful that most downturns,” Dales said.
“That means the unemployment rate is likely to remain stuck around 9.5 percent this year and it won’t fall below 9 percent for a number of years.”
