Ruppersberger Applauds Plan to Boost Small Business

(Washington, D.C.)- Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD) applauds the Obama Administration’s plan to boost small business and get credit flowing quickly.  Congressman Ruppersberger joined President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner at the White House to outline the Administration’s Financial Stability Plan.  The Treasury Department will begin purchasing securities backed by Small Business Administration (SBA) loans to open credit markets giving community banks and credit unions the confidence to extend new loans to local businesses that are credit-worthy.  The plan also increases the federal loan guarantee and temporarily eliminates loan fees.  America’s small businesses account for 70 percent of the new jobs created over the past decade.     

“Today, the President took aggressive steps to improve the lending climate for businesses.   Reducing the cost and expanding government guarantees for SBA loans will help Maryland businesses meet their payrolls and finance growth.  Jobs are the gasoline that drives our economic engine.  If you don’t have a job, you can’t support your family or your community,” said Congressman C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-MD).  “Maryland businesses are not looking for a hand-out in this tough economic climate, they are looking for a way to succeed.  We need to unfreeze the credit market for credit-worthy companies.  I spoke directly with Secretary Geithner to encourage the Treasury Department to further expand efforts by the government to buy poor performing bank assets at a discount in order to inject more lending capital into the banking system.  We must put Marylanders back to work.”

Before being elected to Congress, Ruppersberger was the Baltimore County Executive from 1994 to 2002, where he focused on creating jobs and getting Baltimore County a triple-A bond rating.  His predecessor created 800 jobs during his term.  The Ruppersberger Administration was able to create 47,000 jobs through an aggressive business plan.  In 2001, Baltimore County was named one of the nation's four best-managed counties by Governing Magazine and then County Executive Ruppersberger achieved his goal.  Baltimore County was one of only 19 counties nationwide to receive a triple-A bond rating from all three of the country's bond rating agencies.  

#######