Small Businesses Resist Hiring in Anticipation of Stalled Jobs Bill

(Aug. 31) -- As Congress sits in recess, small-business owners remain in limbo.

That's the unfortunate economic news out of a Tuesday report from USA Today outlining the status of the Small Business Jobs and Credit Act of 2010, which passed the House but now sits motionless in the Senate, where it has sparked a bitter partisan tug-of-war over proposed amendments, with both Republicans and Democrats blaming the other side for failure to move forward.

President Barack Obama weighed in on the issue his first day back from vacationing in Martha's Vineyard and a day trip to New Orleans. "I ask Senate Republicans to drop the blockade," Obama said, referring to a Republican filibuster, according to The New York Times.

Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., countered in an e-mail to the paper: "Instead of growing jobs as promised, Washington Democrats have grown the size of the national debt, the federal government and the unemployment rate."

As a result of the holdup, some small-business owners who hoped the bill would pass in July have put hiring and expansion on hold in anticipation of possible additional funds. However, waiting on the Republican filibuster to break places indirect pressure on the Democrats.

"The Republicans' filibustering has managed to make small-business hiring weaker than it would be if the Democrats had never tried to enact a bill to spur it. Hardball indeed," explains Donny Shaw of OpenCongress.org.

Others believe that the measures included in the bill are out of touch with what small businesses really need.

"There is a complete misunderstanding of just how small business actually functions," small-business owner Paul C. Ryan recently wrote in a letter to The Wall Street Journal. "No small business 'creates' jobs simply because it can get a loan at a low rate. Small businesses simply fill positions as needed if it contributes to the development and greater profit of the enterprise."

The bill passed 241-182 in June in the House, but the Senate, voting 58-42, failed to reach cloture on the issue before the August recess. The Senate is expected to take up the bill again when it returns Sept. 13.