Obama Announces Job
Creation Plan
US
President, Barack Obama has outlined a number of proposals aimed
at boosting employment, including winding up the $700bn US bank
bail-out fund.
Mr. Obama said the remaining money from the Troubled Asset
Relief Program (Tarp) could be used to facilitate lending to
small businesses.
Speaking at the Brookings Institution think tank, he also called
for tax cuts for small businesses.
The unemployment rate in the US currently stands at 10%.
The Tarp fund was set up in the last few weeks of the Bush
administration as a bail-out package for US banks.
On Sunday, a Treasury Department official said the long-term
cost of the package would be at least $200bn less than
previously estimated.
Mr. Obama acknowledged that it had been unpopular.
With regards to small businesses, he proposed a one-year
elimination of capital gains tax on new investments and adding a
new tax cut to encourage small business hiring in 2010.
’’In the last few years, small businesses had created 65% of new
job growth,’’ he said.
He stressed that boosting jobs was the best way to tackle the
massive US deficit.
The president reiterated his commitment to halve the massive US
deficit - which stood at $1.3 trillion when he took office - by
the end of his first term.
Other measures put forward included more money for
infrastructure projects and rebates to consumers who made their
homes more energy-efficient.
BBC/Oluwaseun/Yinka
