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WASHINGTON (CNN) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Congress is set to consider a measure increasing the amount of money the federal government can loan to small businesses.

The House of Representatives will debate a bill next week increasing the ceiling on Small Business Administration loans from $2 million to $5 million. The bill, backed by President Barack Obama, also would increase the maximum size of SBA-backed microloans from $35,000 to $50,000.

On Wednesday, Obama unveiled a separate measure designed to stimulate small business growth in part by making capital cheaper for community banks.

"Small business is the engine of job creation and capital creation in our country," Pelosi told reporters Thursday. "The issue of jobs is (always) important to us."

The moves highlight a growing debate in the White House and on Capitol Hill over whether to push for a second economic stimulus package. The unemployment rate has continued to climb in recent months, and is now near 10 percent.
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - The White House unveiled Thursday the first hard data on how many jobs the $787 billion recovery act has created.

So far, 30,383 jobs have been created by companies that have gotten $2.2 billion worth of stimulus contracts directly from the federal government. That equates to $71,500 per job based on just the funds that have been distributed.

These firms have been awarded a total of $16 billion.

Stimulus-fueled job creation has become a very controversial issue. The White House has faced blistering attacks by Republicans, who contend that the recovery act has failed to live up to its promise to put Americans back to work.

The Obama administration downplayed the reports released Thursday, saying they represent just a small sliver of the stimulus that's been spent, since the massive recovery act was enacted in February. The first reports detailing the number of stimulus jobs created or saved were submitted last weekend by
recipients of stimulus-funded contracts, grants and loans.
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - President Obama is calling on Congress to send another $250 payment to 57 million seniors and other Americans to stem the economic strain.

Congress approved $250 emergency payments as part of the $787 billion economic recovery act that lawmakers passed in February.

"Even as we seek to bring about recovery, we must act on behalf of those hardest hit by this recession," Obama said in a statement Wednesday. "That is why I am announcing my support for an additional $250 in emergency recovery assistance to seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities to help them make it through these difficult times."

The measure would cost $13 billion over 10 years, according to White House estimates.

The $250 is roughly equal to a 2% increase in benefits for the average Social Security beneficiary.

The move would help counter the effect of an expected announcement that Social Security recipients will not get a cost of living bump in 2010. Such adjustments are tied to economic factors such as inflation, which has remained low because of the recession.

The call for increased benefits for seniors is one of several proposals to expand stimulus benefits. Lawmakers are also considering extending unemployment benefits and the homebuyer tax credit, both of which were included in the economic stimulus bill passed in February.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - The U.S. Department of Education is looking to give innovative school districts and non-profit organizations a share of $650 million in education stimulus money now available in a new fund, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said Tuesday.

"There are many, many great ideas out there," Duncan told reporters on a conference call announcing his department's Investing in Innovation fund.

This newest pot of education stimulus money will be allocated directly to local districts - not through state education departments - with the money going to districts that either have a program that is working and needs to be expanded, or have a new idea that needs to be developed.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Amid nervousness about states' economies and a growing unemployment rate, the Obama administration is considering a series of measures aimed at putting many Americans back to work before the 2010 midterm elections, sources close to the process told CNN.

The effort is largely being directed by the Treasury Department and Lawrence Summers, director of the National Economic Council, one source said.

Ideas include enhancing tax credit flexibility for small businesses, extending unemployment and health benefits and offering states temporary "loan packages" to help governors get through the worst of the recession.

Unlike the stimulus package, the loans to states would be voluntary: "We would like to avoid the stimulus problem," the source said.

Other options being examined by the White House, according to two Democratic sources close to the process, include extending the $8,000 tax credit for new homebuyers, set to expire November 30.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) - Nearly $1.2 billion in grants from the $787 billion stimulus bill are being made available to help fund use of electronic health records, the office of Vice President Joe Biden announced Thursday.

Roughly half of the $1.2 billion is designated to help establish approximately 70 regional centers across the country that will provide assistance to hospitals and medical professionals in selecting and using electronic records. The grant program will provide funding for the regional centers for four years beginning with the federal government's 2010 fiscal year.

The administration expects that the centers will be self-sustaining at the end of those four years, according to material from HHS circulated Thursday by Biden's office.

The remaining $600 million in grants is designated to fund efforts at the state level to come up with mechanisms for information exchange involving electronic health records.

"The grants are designed to help doctors and hospitals acquire electronic health records and use them in meaningful ways to improve the health of patients and reduce waste and inefficiency," Dr. David Blumenthal, National Coordinator for Health Information Technology, said in the statement.

GUADALAJARA, Mexico (CNN) - President Barack Obama said Monday that a "Buy American" provision in his economic stimulus plan had little effect so far on the multibillion-dollar trade partnership with Canada.

Obama told journalists at a summit with the leaders of Canada and Mexico that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has raised the issue every time they have met.

Harper has complained the "Buy American" provision is protectionist and could harm trade relations between the closely linked North American economies.

"This in no way this has endangered the billions of dollars of trade taking place between our two countries," Obama said, standing beside Harper and Calderon at a final news conference.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Sen. John McCain says his former rival for the White House deserves some credit for the beginnings of an economic turnaround in the short term, but adds that the long-term consequences of the Obama administration’s spending could be “devastating.”

The Arizona Republican spoke to CNN Chief National Correspondent John King Sunday in a wide-ranging interview on CNN’s State of the Union.

Asked whether President Obama deserves some credit for recent indicators that the recessionary economy has stopped its freefall, McCain said: “I think it’s very clear that the stimulus has had some effect. But, what I worry more than anything about is the long-term effects, because we are committing generational theft.

”We have put trillions of additional debt on future generations of Americans,” he added.

“In the words of the Congressional Budget Office and others, it is ‘unsustainable,’” McCain said.

“The long-term consequences, I think, are going to be, unfortunately, devastating unless we do something about it,” McCain also said.

McCain’s comments come as Democrats have been ratcheting up their efforts to demonstrate the effectiveness of Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan which Republicans say has not benefited the economy or eased unemployment as Democrats promised.

(CNN) - President Barack Obama can't have it both ways on his economic stimulus package, the man he defeated in last year's election said Sunday.

Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, told the NBC program "Meet the Press" that Obama either got it wrong when he predicted the benefits of his $787 billion economic stimulus package in February, or he's wrong now in saying the stimulus is working as intended.

"He's either not leveling now or he wasn't leveling at the time they passed the stimulus package," McCain said.

He cited predictions by Obama earlier this year that the spending plan would hold unemployment to 8.5 percent or less, noting the figure is now at 9.5 percent and likely to continue rising.

McCain also complained that the stimulus plan has failed to deliver the job creation Obama pledged.

"What they promised us would be the result of the stimulus in the short-term has turned out not to be true," he said.

On the same program, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York responded it was too soon to pronounce judgment on the stimulus plan.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) – After a week of increasing Republican criticism of Democrats’ $787 billion stimulus bill, President Obama is using his weekly address to defend the massive piece of legislation which has in many ways come to define his young administration thus far.

“In a little over one hundred days,” Obama says in Saturday’s address, the stimulus plan “has worked as intended.”

“As a result of the swift and aggressive action we took in the first few months of this year, we’ve been able to pull our financial system and our economy back from the brink,” Obama also says.

The nearly $800 billion bill “wasn’t designed to restore the economy to full health on its own, but to provide the boost necessary to stop the free fall,” the president says in his weekly address.

Answering attacks on the stimulus bill in the last week for failing to create as many jobs as projected, Obama says the bill is still the process of yielding projects and employment.

“[I]t’s led to new jobs building roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects, thousands of which are only beginning now. In the months to come, thousands more projects will begin, leading to additional jobs,” the president says.

In Saturday’s address, Obama also responds to critics who believe the $787 billion bill is not sufficient to turn around the economy and who are, therefore, pushing for another stimulus package.

“[A]s I made clear at the time it was passed, the Recovery Act was not designed to work in four months – it was designed to work over two years. We also knew that it would take some time for the money to get out the door, because we are committed to spending it in a way that is effective and transparent. Crucially, this is a plan that will also accelerate greatly throughout the summer and the fall. We must let it work the way it’s supposed to, with the understanding that in any recession, unemployment tends to recover more slowly than other measures of economic activity.”
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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Rep. Eric Cantor of Virginia, the number two Republican in the House of Representatives, used the weekly Republican radio and internet address to slam President Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan.

Saying the stimulus bill passed earlier this year was "full of pork barrel spending, government waste, and massive borrowing," the House Minority Whip also says in Saturday's address that "President Obama's economic decisions have not produced jobs, have not produced prosperity, and have not worked."

Citing the millions of jobs lost this year and a national unemployment rate hovering just under ten percent, Cantor also uses this week's address to assert that the stimulus package has failed to deliver as promised by Democrats.

"Remember the promises? They promised you if you paid for their stimulus, jobs would be created immediately. . . . Yet just months later, they are telling us to brace for unemployment to climb over ten percent. They promised jobs created. Now they scramble to find a way to play games with government numbers by claiming jobs saved.

"Simply put, this is now President Obama's economy and the American people are beginning to question whether his policies are working."
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(CNN) - A leading congressional Democrat and Republican both expressed disappointment Sunday with the pace of the government's economic stimulus program, but offered differing views on whether it was a good idea.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said allocating the $787 billion in the stimulus package pushed by President Barack Obama to create jobs was taking too long.

"We're disappointed," Hoyer, D-Maryland, told "FOX News Sunday." "We're looking at ways to get the money out more quickly."

Hoyer's Republican counterpart, Rep. John Boehner, said on the same program that the stimulus bill passed by Congress in February was flawed.

"You can't spend $800 billion of taxpayer money and not create jobs, when you say that's what the bill was for," Boehner, of Ohio, complained. Boehner said the bill only funds more government, rather than creating private sector jobs.
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(CNN) - A leading congressional Democrat and Republican both expressed disappointment Sunday with the pace of the government's economic stimulus program, but offered differing views on whether it was a good idea.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said allocating the $787 billion in the stimulus package pushed by President Barack Obama to create jobs was taking too long.

"We're disappointed," Hoyer, D-Maryland, told "FOX News Sunday." "We're looking at ways to get the money out more quickly."

Hoyer's Republican counterpart, Rep. John Boehner, said on the same program that the stimulus bill passed by Congress in February was flawed.

"You can't spend $800 billion of taxpayer money and not create jobs, when you say that's what the bill was for," Boehner, of Ohio, complained. Boehner said the bill only funds more government, rather than creating private sector jobs.
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NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) - In two Oregon national parks, your taxpayer dollars are literally going up in flames.

PatRick Environmental is a small business that specializes in preventing forest fires. The firm recently landed a contract, backed by stimulus cash from the Recovery Act, to torch areas of Oregon's Deschutes & Ochoco National Forest and Crooked River National Grass Lands. This controlled burning will promote new growth and thin some trees so that unplanned wildfires don't become unmanageable.

The project is one of thousands being carried out across the U.S. that are putting stimulus money to work shoring up the country's infrastructure and generating much-needed business for local companies.

Full story on CNNMoney.com

WASHINGTON (CNNMoney.com) - The Obama administration estimates that the economic stimulus plan will create or save 750,000 jobs by early August, a senior administration official said on Monday.

The comments came as the administration's Council on Economic Advisers released a report that explained the methodology behind its estimates for how many jobs will be created by the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

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WASHINGTON (CNN) – Grandparents, retirees and struggling seniors have waited months for this.

Tens of millions of Social Security recipients will see their bank accounts jump by $250 starting Thursday, when the government began sending out checks and transferring funds for a one-time boost coming from the stimulus bill passed in February.

The payments are flowing to nearly 55 million seniors and retirees between now and June fourth, with a huge chunk of checks hitting the mail this week.

"Approximately half of them will be out in the next day or two," Social Security Commissioner Michael Astrue told CNN Thursday.

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(CNN) – President Obama has finally responded personally to the so-called the "tea party" movement – a move amongst some conservatives that criticizes the new administration's policies on taxes, spending, and borrowing during a national economic crisis.

Those critics, he said, were "just waving tea bags around."

"I know you've been hearing all these arguments about, oh, 'Obama is just spending crazy,'" the president said at a town hall event in Arnold, Missouri Wednesday. "Well, let me make a point. Number one, we inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit - that wasn't from my - that wasn't me."

"Number two, there is almost uniform consensus among economists that in the middle of the biggest crisis - financial crisis since the Great Depression, we had to take extraordinary steps. So you've got a lot of Republican economists who agree that we had to do a stimulus package and we had to do something about the banks."

The president told the audience that the federal government's biggest long term fiscal challenges are its commitments for Medicare and Medicaid.

"That's why I've said we've got to have health reform this year - to drive down costs and make health care affordable for American families, businesses and for our government," said Obama.

On his 100th day in office, Obama said he would like to have a "serious" discussion" about how the federal government can rein in spending and meet its long term obligations.

"So, you know, when you see - those of you who are watching certain news channels on which I'm not very popular and you see folks waving tea bags around, let me just remind them that I am happy to have a serious conversation about how we are going to cut our health care costs down over the long term, how we're going to stabilize Social Security."
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(CNN) – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is sticking to his guns – but leaving all of his options open – when it comes to $700 million in disputed stimulus funds at the center of a multi-sided dispute involving federal and state lawmakers.

Read: Sanford's latest letter to Obama's budget director

The governor is hoping to reach an agreement with the legislature that would allow state funds to be used to pay down debt, Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer told CNN Monday. If an agreement is reached, then Sanford will complete the process of applying for the $700 million in funds available from the federal stimulus package.

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(CNN) – South Carolina’s Republican governor called on President Obama Monday to call a halt to a Democratic ad that slams him over his position on stimulus spending.

Mark Sanford ended up in the crosshairs of the Democratic National Committee late last week after he announced his decision to seek permission from the White House to use $700 million in the stimulus funds due his state to pay down debt.

“South Carolina is facing tough times – but Governor Sanford is playing politics instead of doing what’s right,” says the announcer in a DNC television spot that begins airing Monday in Columbia, South Carolina. “Turning down millions in recovery act funds, putting politics ahead of health care, jobs and schools.”

Related: South Carolina student wants stimulus funds for school

Sanford, who criticized the ad Friday, said Monday that President Obama should use his influence to pull the ad from the airwaves. “I don't think this approach of targeting ads against anyone who sees an issue a little differently represents the kind of so-called 'change' many people were voting for in November,” said Sanford.

The decision to seek use the $700 million – or roughly a quarter of the total money due South Carolina from Obama’s stimulus package – “still means a $2.1 billion spending windfall would come to our state,” Sanford also said Monday. “[A]nd one has to ask isn’t there a point when enough is enough in spending money we don’t have?”

After quoting from Obama’s inaugural address, Sanford “respectfully ask[s] [Obama] to end this ad . . . . and to ask his Democratic National Committee to put an end to this mudslinging and get back to an honest debate about the future of our country.”

In a Friday statement, a spokesman for Sanford called the stimulus money “a federal predatory loan, the cost of which will be borne by future generations who will never have a chance to vote from office the very people who are saddling them with unprecedented spending and guaranteed future tax increases.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) - President Obama vowed Monday to ease the financial plight of the nation's small businesses, promising immediate action to revive frozen credit markets.

Obama made his remarks to reporters after he and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner met in the White House with representatives of the Small Business Administration.

Watch: 'Small businesses are the heart of the American economy'

The president called small businesses "one of the biggest drivers of employment that we have" and said his administration is "working diligently to increase liquidity throughout the financial system."

But he cautioned it will be a long-term effort. "Understand, this is still going to be a first step in what is going to be a continuing effort to make sure people get credit out there," he said.

Many small businesses, drowning from dried-up coffers and unpaid bills, are having a tough time getting loans from lenders.

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