As Obama pointed out, small business in the United States have created 65% of America’s new jobs over the past 15 years. To quickly stimulate job creation in the private sector, Obama proposed eliminating capital gains and extending hiring incentives for small businesses.
Modernizing America’s infrastructure is another key priority of this administration, says Obama. Over 10,000 projects have sprung out of the Recovery Act so far, and while these projects take time to start up, physical work on infrastructure improvement projects including roads, bridges, water systems, broadband networks, and clean energy will begin soon and will require able workers.
Obama also called on Congress to consider providing financial incentives for consumers who retrofit homes to become more energy efficient. Promoting energy efficiency and clean energy jobs, according to Obama, “can help turn good ideas into good private-sector jobs.” People who choose to work in the emerging Green industry will require access to education; recent reforms in education and investment at the Community College level are expected to attract students to the training required to succeed in this burgeoning sector of the economy.
The timing of President Obama’s latest initiatives seems to be excellent. Early 2009 attempts to stabilize the faltering economy involved bailing out Wall Street’s giants with the expectation that funds would trickle down to middle America and its small businesses on Main Street. With the recent news that job loss has slowed and with the economic outlook becoming more positive, millions of Americans are eager to roll up their sleeves and work, and Obama’s proposals aim to provide the financial incentives that will make that work available.
Costs and sources of funding for these priorities is as yet undetermined, but may be derived in part from other government Recovery Act programs which have demanded less financial support than originally projected.
