Sen. Michael Bennet doubled down on yet more support for small businesses Tuesday even as one of his treasured election-season objectives finally moved forward in the U.S. Senate.
A stalled bill offering $42 billion in small-business support neared passage, and Bennet’s vocal backing for that and further relief measures offered stark contrast to Republican opponent Ken Buck.
Buck opposes the measure as more government meddling with private business decisions, saying a new $30 billion loan fund may offer banks bonuses for the kinds of risky lending that launched the Great Recession.
Bennet said Tuesday that Congress has to keep pushing incentives and relief for small business.
“The key for our economic recovery is getting credit flowing again to small business. Finally, the Senate is moving forward again on that,” Bennet said in a conference call with reporters. “But there’s a lot more we need to do to drive job creation in this country.”
In addition to the bill’s $30 billion loan fund and $12 billion in small-business tax cuts, Bennet wants large increases in estate-tax exemptions for small businesses and farmers.
Bennet said he will also push for credits to businesses training employees for new-energy jobs and to small companies investing in rural areas.
Campaigning in Colorado in August, Bennet backed the small-business bill early and often. Analyses of the bill say that closing tax loopholes and other provisions will pay for the bill. Regulators have clamped down so hard on banks that thriving small companies can’t get credit to expand, Bennet says.
The bill, which has some bipartisan support, gained two Republicans on Tuesday, and the Senate voted to end debate. A final passage could come this week.
Buck responds that Bennet should be working instead to remove red-tape burdens on small business, including new tax-reporting requirements under health care reform that Republicans have been attacking in multiple campaigns.
Bennet voted “yes” to consider an amendment eliminating the so-called 1099 provision, but the measure failed. Buck’s campaign called it a sellout.
“Bennet is all politics,” Buck campaign manager John Swartout said. “If he really supported small businesses, he would have stood on the Senate floor and fought against this job-killing measure when it was included in the health care reform bill, and he would have spoken out in favor of the Johanns (1099) amendment today, not run up to the desk and vote after it became clear that the measure would fail.”
Michael Booth: 303-954-1686 or mbooth@denverpost.com
