VOA标准英语2009年-Obama Announces Help for Small Business

U.S. President Barack Obama has announced new help for small business owners who have been hard hit by the economic downturn. He is taking steps to ease the credit shortage that is prompting many small businesses to cut back operations or close their doors.
　
President Barack Obama gestures while delivering remarks to small business owners, community lenders and members of Congress, in the East Room of the White House, 16 Mar¹ 2009

The president says small businesses are the heart of the U.S. economy.

"They are responsible for half of all private sector² jobs," said Mr. Obama. "And they created roughly 70 percent of all new jobs in the past decade."

But across the country, small businesses are in trouble. Right now the biggest challenge many face is access to credit - the ability to get loans at affordable³ rates.

The government's Small Business Administration already provides some help by backing loans from community banks. The SBA recently expanded that program and cut lending fees. The president says as the next step, the Treasury⁴ Department will step in to buy small business loans from banks, giving them capital that can then be used for more loans.

"Any lender that provides SBA small business loans will have a buyer for those loans," he said. "And in turn, community banks will no longer have to choose between providing loans to credit-worthy small businesses and maintaining the required capital and liquidity⁵."

The Obama administration has been especially attuned⁶ to criticism that it is not doing enough for small business, and focusing too much on helping⁷ big corporations and financial firms.

As the president was preparing to make his remarks at the White House, outrage⁸ was building over word a major American insurance company, AIG, was going ahead with millions of dollars in bonus payments to its executives. Those payments were being made as the floundering company received billions of dollars in government aid to avoid bankruptcy⁹.

The president said the Treasury Department will do what it can to block the bonuses.

"In the last six months, AIG has received substantial sums from the U.S. Treasury," added Mr. Obama. "I have asked Secretary [Tim] Geithner to use that leverage¹⁰ and pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers¹¹ whole."

Meanwhile, Mr. Obama's political supporters are launching a grass-roots effort to win public support for his economic policies. Working from an e-mail list of millions of voters who supported his presidential campaign, they will focus on putting pressure on Congress to approve his $3.55 trillion budget for 2010.

Republicans say that budget shows the president is not really serious about helping small business. The number-two Republican in the House of Representatives, Eric Cantor of Virginia, said Sunday Mr. Obama's budget would raise income taxes on many small business owners and entrepreneurs.

"We have got to do something to help these small business people. We know that they are the job creators in this economy," he said. "And the problem with, I think we are seeing out of the Obama administration, is a lack of focus on how to get things going again."

Cantor spoke¹² on the NBC news program Meet the Press.

1 mar   

vt.破坏，毁坏，弄糟

参考例句：

• It was not the custom for elderly people to mar the picnics with their presence.大人们照例不参加这样的野餐以免扫兴。
• Such a marriage might mar your career.这样的婚姻说不定会毁了你的一生。

2 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

3 affordable   

adj.支付得起的，不太昂贵的

参考例句：

• The rent for the four-roomed house is affordable.四居室房屋的房租付得起。
• There are few affordable apartments in big cities.在大城市中没有几所公寓是便宜的。

4 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

5 liquidity   

n.流动性，偿债能力，流动资产

参考例句：

• The bank has progressively increased its liquidity.银行逐渐地增加其流动资产。
• The demand for and the supply of credit is closely linked to changes in liquidity.信用的供求和流动资金的变化有密切关系。

6 attuned   

v.使协调( attune的过去式和过去分词 )；调音

参考例句：

• She wasn't yet attuned to her baby's needs. 她还没有熟悉她宝宝的需要。
• Women attuned to sensitive men found Vincent Lord attractive. 偏爱敏感男子的女人，觉得文森特·洛德具有魅力。 来自辞典例句

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

9 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

10 leverage   

n.力量，影响；杠杆作用，杠杆的力量

参考例句：

• We'll have to use leverage to move this huge rock.我们不得不借助杠杆之力来移动这块巨石。
• He failed in the project because he could gain no leverage. 因为他没有影响力，他的计划失败了。

11 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。