Vice President Biden to Discuss the Importance of the American Jobs Act for Small Businesses in Solon, Ohio

Washington, DC- Tomorrow, September 20, 2011 at 11:00 AM EDT, Vice President Biden and Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Karen Mills will visit Wrap-Tite, Inc in Solon, Ohio, where they will discuss the importance of the American Jobs Act for small businesses in Ohio and nationwide. They will also announce a new lending commitment.  The Vice President will discuss the urgent need for Congress to pass the American Jobs Act now in order to help small businesses across the country grow and put more Americans back to work. Wrap Tite is a manufacturer and distributor of stretch wrap and other packaging and shipping products.  The firm recently received an SBA loan to assist in the purchase of a $1.5 million, 87,000 square-foot facility in Solon, Ohio.  The new facility has allowed Wrap Tite to continue its growth, leading to 5 new hires and $250,000 in equipment purchases over the last year.

Fact Sheet: Living Within Our Means and Investing in the Future - The President’s Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction

Overview

The health of our economy depends on what we do right now to create the conditions where businesses can hire and middle-class families can feel a basic measure of economic security. In the long run, our prosperity also depends on our ability to pay down the massive debt the federal government has accumulated over the past decade. Today, the President sent to the Joint Committee his plan to jumpstart economic growth and job creation now – and to lay the foundation for it continue for years to come.

The President’s Plan for Economic Growth and Deficit Reduction lives up to a simple idea: as a Nation, we can live within our means while still making the investments we need to prosper – from a jobs bill that is needed right now to long-term investments in education, innovation, and infrastructure. It follows a balanced approach: asking everyone to do their part, so no one has to bear all the burden.  And it says that everyone – including millionaires and billionaires – has to pay their fair share. Overall, it pays for the President’s jobs bill and produces net savings of more than $3 trillion over the next decade, on top of the roughly $1 trillion in spending cuts that the President already signed into law in the Budget Control Act – for a total savings of more than $4 trillion over the next decade. This would bring the country to a place, by 2017, where current spending is no longer adding to our debt, debt is falling as a share of the economy, and deficits are at a sustainable level.

The American Jobs Act

• Tax cuts to help businesses hire and grow
  • Cutting the payroll tax in half on the first $5 million in payroll, targeting the benefit to the 98 percent of firms with payroll below this threshold.
  • A complete payroll tax holiday for added workers or increased wages up to $50 million
  • Extending 100 percent expensing into 2012
  • Reforms and regulatory reductions to help entrepreneurs and small businesses access capital 
• Putting workers back on the job while rebuilding and modernizing America
  • A “Returning Heroes” hiring tax credit for veterans
  • Preventing up to 280,000 teacher layoffs, while keeping cops and firefighters on the job
  • Immediate investments in infrastructure, school buildings, and neighborhoods as well as a bipartisan National Infrastructure Bank 
• Pathways back to work for Americans looking for jobs
  • The most innovative reform to the unemployment insurance program in 40 years and extension of emergency unemployment insurance preventing  6 million Americans looking for work from losing benefits
  • A $4,000 tax credit to employers for hiring the long-term unemployed
  • Prohibiting employers from discriminating against unemployed workers when hiring
  • Expanding job opportunities for low-income youth and adults 
• Tax relief for every American worker and family
  • Cutting payroll taxes in half for 160 million workers next year
  • Allowing more Americans to refinance their mortgages 
• Fully paid for as part of the President’s long-term deficit reduction plan 

Paying for Our Investments and Reducing the Deficit

• The plan produces approximately $4.4 trillion in deficit reduction net the cost of the American Jobs Act.
  • $1.2 trillion from the discretionary cuts enacted in the Budget Control Act.
  • $580 billion in cuts and reforms to a wide range of mandatory programs;
  • $1.1 trillion from the drawdown of troops in Afghanistan and transition from a military to a civilian-led mission in Iraq
  • $1.5 trillion from tax reform
  • $430 billion in additional interest savings
• To spur economic growth and job creation, the plan includes one-time investment and relief in the American Jobs Act.  That adds to the deficit in 2012 but is fully paid for over 10 years, and deficit reduction phases in starting in 2013, as the economy grows stronger.
• Deficit reduction is achieved in a balanced approach, with a spending cut to revenue ratio for the entire plan (including discretionary cuts) of 2 to 1.  

Deficits and Debt

• The Joint Committee plan significantly reduces deficits and puts the country on a fiscally sustainable path by 2017.
  • The deficit is projected to fall to 2.3 percent of GDP in 2021. By comparison, if we did nothing, the deficit would be 5.5 percent of GDP in 2021.
  • Reaches “primary balance”-- where our current spending is no longer adding to our debt -- in 2017. At that point, current spending is no longer adding to our debt, debt is falling as a share of the economy, and deficits are at a sustainable level. 
• The President’s plan would reduce the national debt as a share of economy.
  • Stable or falling debt as a share of the economy is a key metric of fiscal sustainability.
  • If we did nothing, the national debt would rise to 90.7 percent of GDP in 2021.  By contrast, under the President’s plan, the national debt would fall to 73.0 percent of GDP in 2021 -- or an improvement of almost 18 percentage points. 

Health Savings

• The plan includes $320 billion in health savings that build on the Affordable Care Act to strengthen Medicare and Medicaid by reducing wasteful spending and erroneous payments, and supporting reforms that boost the quality of care. It accomplishes this in a way that does not shift significant risks onto the individuals they serve; slash benefits; or undermine the fundamental compact they represent to our Nation’s seniors, people with disabilities, and low-income families. 
• The plan includes $248 billion in savings from Medicare.
  • Within this total, 90 percent of the savings, or $224 billion, comes from reducing overpayments in Medicare.
  • Any savings that affect beneficiaries do not begin until 2017.
  • The plan does not propose to change the eligibility age for Medicare benefits. 
• Other health and Medicaid savings amount to $72 billion. 
• Because of the structural nature of these reforms, health savings grow to over $1 trillion in the second decade. 
• The President will veto any bill that takes one dime from the Medicare benefits seniors rely on without asking the wealthiest Americans and biggest corporations to pay their fair share.

Other Mandatory

• The plan includes $250 billion in savings from other mandatory programs. 
• Included within these savings are:
  • $33 billion insavings from agriculture subsidies, payments, and programs
  • $42.5 billion in reforms to Federal employee benefit programs, including programs for civilian employees and military personnel.
  • $4.1 billion from the disposal of unused government assets.
  • $92.2 billion from restructuring government operations and reducing government liabilities.
  • $77.6 billion from improving Federal program management and reducing waste and abuse.

Revenues

• The President calls on the Committee to undertake comprehensive tax reform, and lays out five principles for it to follow: 1) lower tax rates; 2) cut wasteful loopholes and tax breaks; 3) reduce the deficit by $1.5 trillion; 4) boost job creation and growth; and 5) comport with the “Buffett Rule” that people making more than $1 million a year should not pay a smaller share of their income in taxes than middle-class families pay.
  • Tax reform should draw on the specific proposals the President has put forward, together with elimination of additional inefficient tax breaks. If the Joint Committee is unable to undertake comprehensive tax reform, the President believes the discrete measures he has proposed should be enacted on a standalone basis. Their enactment as a standalone package still would significantly improve the country’s fiscal standing, represent an important step toward more fundamentally transforming our tax code, and serve as a strong foundation for economic growth and job creation. 
  • To advance this debate, the President is offering a detailed set of specific tax loophole closers and measures to broaden the tax base that, together with the expiration of the high-income tax cuts, would be more than sufficient to hit the $1.5 trillion target. These include:
    • Allowing the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts for upper income earners to expire ($866 billion)
    • Limiting deductions and exclusions for those making more than $250,000 a year ($410 billion)
    • Closing loopholes and eliminating special interest tax breaks (approximately $300 billion)

President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

• Representative Ann Marie Buerkle - Representative of the United States of America to the Sixty-sixth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Representative from the State of New York)
• Representative Russ Carnahan - Representative of the United States of America to the Sixty-sixth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Representative from the State of Missouri)

The President also announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key Administration posts:

• Teresita Fernández – Member, Commission of Fine Arts
• John M. Spratt, Jr. - Chairman of the United States Section, Permanent Joint Board on Defense, United States and Canada

President Obama said, “I am grateful that these talented and dedicated individuals have agreed to take on these important roles and devote their talents to serving the American people.  I look forward to working with them in the coming months and years.”

President Obama announced his intent to nominate the following individuals to key Administration posts:

Representative Russ Carnahan, Nominee for Representative of the United States of America to the Sixty-sixth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Representative from the State of Missouri)
Representative Russ Carnahan currently represents the 3rd District of Missouri.  He was first elected to this position in 2004 and took office in January 2005.  He currently serves as a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs where he is the Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight; the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; and the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs.  Prior to his election to Congress, Representative Carnahan served two terms in the Missouri House of Representatives.  He holds a B.S. from the University of Missouri in Columbia and a J.D. from the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Law.

Representative Ann Marie Buerkle, Nominee for Representative of the United States of America to the Sixty-sixth Session of the General Assembly of the United Nations (U.S. Representative from the State of New York)
Representative Ann Marie Buerkle currently represents the 25th District of New York.  She was elected to this position in 2010 and took office in January 2011.  She currently serves as a member of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs where she Chairs the Subcommittee on Health; the Committee on Foreign Affairs; and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.  Prior to her election to Congress, Representative Buerkle served as an Assistant New York State Attorney General from 1997 to 2010.  Previously, she practiced law in a private firm after beginning her career as a Registered Nurse at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City.  She holds a B.S. from Le Moyne College and a J.D. from Syracuse University College of Law.

President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to  key Administration posts:

Teresita Fernández, Appointee for Member, Commission of Fine Arts
Teresita Fernández is a visual artist best known for her prominent public sculptures and unconventional use of materials.  Ms. Fernández is a 2005 MacArthur Foundation Fellow and has received many prestigious awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Louis Comfort Tiffany Biennial Award, an American Academy in Rome Affiliated Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Artist's Grant. Ms. Fernández’s works are included in many prominent collections and have been exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth, the Castello di Rivoli in Turin, Italy, The Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Centro de Arte Contemporaneo in Malaga, Spain, and the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia.  Ms. Fernández is currently on the board of Artpace, a non-profit international artist's residency program.  She received her M.F.A. from Virginia Commonwealth University and her B.F.A. from Florida International University.

John M. Spratt, Jr., Appointee for Chairman of the United States Section, Permanent Joint Board on Defense, United States and Canada
John M. Spratt, Jr. is currently serving as Distinguished Professor of Public Policy at Winthrop University. He served in the United States House of Representatives from 1983 through 2010. He chaired the House Budget Committee and was second ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee. Prior to his service in Congress, Mr. Spratt practiced law in South Carolina and was the president of a small community bank.  He served on active duty as a Captain in the Army from 1969 to 1971. Mr. Spratt belongs to the Council on Foreign Relations and the Atlantic Council, and is also a member of the Board of the Parkinson’s Action Network.  He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Davidson College, a Master’s degree from Oxford University as a Marshall Scholar, and a Law degree from Yale Law School. 

Vice President Biden to Travel to Ohio

Washington, D.C. – On Tuesday, September 20th, Vice President Joe Biden and SBA Administrator Karen Mills will travel to Solon, Ohio, to discuss the importance of the American Jobs Act for small businesses in Ohio and nationwide, and to announce a new lending initiative. Additional details about the event will be released in the coming days.