President Obama finally received the support he needed for his new Small Business Bill from the U.S senate. The new package entails eight business-oriented tax cuts and accelerates existing loan programs. This new law is supposed to decrease the unemployment rate and increase funding and good programs for small business owners. Many Republicans thought this was a smaller version of the Wall Street bailout, but President Obama is confident that this newly enacted law will help many small businesses who have been affected by the recession. Brad Andrews, associate professor of economics, gives his opinion.

Do you think this bill will actually increase jobs to 500,000 like President Obama said it would?
It’s unlikely to help that much. The changes are tiny relative to the size of the US economy.

What do you think about the statement, “The Republicans opposed the bill, calling it a small version of the Wall street bailout and blocked it in the senate for 2 weeks.”?
I don’t see their point. It sounds like they are trying to demonize the bill.

Is this the ‘right’ time for the bill to be instated or should it have been passed at a different time? Earlier? Later?
It’s right before an election, so from the Democrats’ standpoint it’s just the right time. As for an economics answer, it doesn’t matter. It isn’t going to have much of an impact.

Will this bill lead to more entrepreneurs entering into the creation and development of more small businesses? Do you find this good or bad?
It may have a minor effect on entrepreneurship and new business creation. To the extent that it helps encourage new business, it is a good thing.

As far as employment and unemployment rates, is the 9.6% unemployment rate bad or will there always be a percentage of the U.S population to be unemployed?
It’s not an either/or question. A 9.6% unemployment rate is bad and there will always be some people unemployed. An unemployment rate of 5.5-6% is typical for a healthy economy.

-Mary E Munion ‘12 Juniata Online Journalist