Don’t look for the Senate to quickly follow the House on health care overhaul. A government health insurance plan included in the House bill is unacceptable to a few Democratic moderates who hold the balance of power in the Senate. They’re locked in a battle with liberals, with the fate of President Barack Obama’s signature issue at stake.
Tag: plan
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No Guarantees on Senate Health Bill’s Public Plan
The focus of the health overhaul debate now shifts to whether Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid can persuade a handful of moderate senators to get behind his new proposal for a government-sponsored insurance plan.
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Obama Announces Small Business Bail Out
Filed under: News, The Economy
President Obama has finally outlined a bail out plan for America’s small businesses. Perhaps due to mounting criticism that the administration is only helping huge corporations weather the economic storm, the Obama Administration outlined a series of policies targeted to direct more capital to small banks and community institutions that lend to small businesses, especially in economically deprived areas. The New York Times reports:The measures, announced by Mr. Obama at a small records storage company in Maryland, would allow smaller community banks to borrow at low rates from the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program. It would also raise the loan caps on several popular Small Business Administration programs.
Under the administration plan, banks with less than $1 billion in assets could borrow from the program at a lower interest rate than financial institutions are required to pay.
In exchange, banks must demonstrate how they would increase lending to small businesses and follow up with quarterly reports. According to the White House, most business loans by the community banks that are eligible for the new rules are made to small businesses.In addition, community groups that lend to small businesses in low-income areas under a Treasury Department program will be able to borrow relief money at just 2 percent annually for eight years. In the past, banks have been leery of the such loans because the program allows the government to buy warrants for the banks’ common stock and because it requires the institutions to limit executive compensation. But the small banks probably will not have to issue warrants in that program rules contain an exception for infusions of less than $100 million. The proposal as described Wednesday caps the infusions at $20 million.
To learn more about Obama’s small business bailout program, be sure to check out these sites:
+Obama Announces Small-Business Lending Push
+Community banks to get bailout money as Obama seeks to boost small business
+Obama refocuses bailout on small businesses -
Torre not anticipating new contract (AP)
Joe Torre says he doesn't plan to manage the Los Angeles Dodgers after his contract expires. "I have one year on my contract and I don't anticipate it being more than that," he said Tuesday, two days before the Dodgers open the NLCS against Philadelphia. However, he noted, "I've said that before and my wife doesn't believe me at all." The 69-year-old manager is…