By Ken Newton; St. Joseph News Press Congressional Democrats and the White House hailed passage Thursday of a bill meant to increase lending opportunities for small businesses. Republicans called it Bailout Redux. The U.S. House approved the Small Business Lending Fund Act by a vote of 237 to 187. Only one Republican, Rep. Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, sided with the… Read more »

By Wall Street Journal House Republicans released their "Pledge to America" campaign agenda yesterday, and it was quickly attacked by Democrats as dangerously radical and by the blogging right as dangerously cautious. The reality is that it's somewhere in between, a consensus document typical of Congress that is very strong in promising to shut down the Obama agenda but less clear as a… Read more »

By Sarah Needleman; Wall Street Journal Several provisions of the health-care overhaul that go into effect on Thursday will expand the amount of coverage that many small-business owners provide their employees. But the changes are also expected to increase insurance premiums. The changes include restrictions on annual limits; new appeals processes; the extension of dependent coverage… Read more »

By Jeff Cornwall; Christian Science Monitor It looks like the so-called Small Business Bill is about to become law. So what will it offer our ailing small businesses? More debt and more government intervention. Most of the attempt at stimulating small business in the Small Business Bill comes in the forms of offering more loans to small businesses. This is coming from government… Read more »

By Chris Isidore; CNN Money With income tax rates set to go up on Dec. 31, Congress is hotly debating what to do next. But most economists agree: Keep them where they are. One option, to let the tax cuts passed during the Bush administration expire for only the richest 3% of taxpayers while renewing them for everyone else, is popular among Democrats and the choice of the Obama… Read more »

By John D. McKinnon; Wall Street Journal The uncertainty over looming tax increases is starting to affect both investing and corporate decision-making. The economy remains the biggest factor in many investors' and businesses' decisions. But worries over whether Congress will extend some or all of the expiring Bush-era tax breaks are emerging as an important one. Stock prices of… Read more »

Associated Press House Republican Leader John Boehner on Wednesday proposed a two-year freeze on all tax rates and a cut in government spending to the levels of 2008, before a deep recession took hold of the economy. In a broadcast interview, the Ohio Republican said he was offering a "bipartisan" alternative to the package of business tax incentives and infrastructure spending that… Read more »

By Caroline Harris; The Washington Times As our economy meanders down the road to recovery, yet to hit its stride, the American dream slides out of reach for too many. Nearly one in 10 Americans can't find work. If you consider those who have given up looking or settled for part-time work, that number jumps to nearly one in five. Things are bad - and they are about to get worse. On… Read more »

By Walter Alarkon; The Hill The U.S. economy faces a “lost decade” like the one Japan suffered through in the 1990s if the government continues to spend and rack up debt, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said Monday. Ryan, one of the GOP’s leading voices on the economy, said the White House and congressional Democrats have spent too much and pushed policies that have created too much… Read more »

By David Lerman and Liz Smith; Bloomberg BusinessWeek Sales are off by 20 percent this year at Image Computer, which repairs printers in suburban Detroit. So President Steve Olis is worried about whether he can continue paying the $71,000 a year it costs him to provide health insurance for his employees. The Obama Administration's answer for Olis and other small-business owners: a… Read more »