Small business applauds Obama announcement of lending package

I was honored to be at the White House today for President Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's announcement. Their plan to put $730 million in stimulus dollars into a recovery package for small business is an important step toward economic recovery for the United States.

Access to capital is a tremendous challenge for small businesses even in the best of times. By making this decision, President Obama has recognized that small businesses are being hurt by the credit crunch even more than other sectors of our economy. Because small businesses traditionally have always led the recovery out of recessions, ensuring that they have sufficient capital to grow and continue to innovate is essential to America's economic health.