Obama wants small business bill this year

By Jim Kuhnhenn Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama urged Congress on Tuesday to act quickly on bipartisan measures that would extend tax breaks for small businesses and help startup companies raise money. He said he would sign the legislation "right away." Obama plans to include in his 2013 budget proposal later this month a series of business measures that have been percolating in Congress or that already have passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives to give entrepreneurs incentives to expand their businesses or start new ones. Obama made his remarks during a Cabinet meeting at the White House. He noted that for the first time, the head of the Small Business Administration, Karen Mills, was participating as a full member of the Cabinet. He said her presence symbolized his administration's determination to spur entrepreneurship and help startup companies. The Obama administration also is seeking several major new tax breaks for small businesses that add jobs or increase wages in 2012. With the presidential election set to become the main political preoccupation of 2012, the White House initiative is designed to take advantage of cooperative attempts by Republicans and Democrats to find modest remedies to spur the economy. Most of those efforts have been overshadowed by congressional bickering, the Republican presidential primary and Obama's growing attention to his re-election. The measures are modest by comparison to Obama's 2009 economic stimulus or to last year's jobs bill. But they borrow from past Obama initiatives and from bipartisan legislation that has passed or been proposed in Congress. White House officials would not disclose the total cost of the president's package, but financial adviser Gene Sperling said it would be more than covered by proposals to reduce tax expenditures and by closed loopholes the administration will request in its 2013 budget. Published: Thu, Feb 2, 2012