BUFFALO — Welcomes President Obama to Western New York on Thursday to Talk Jobs and small Businesses. Although President Obama’s original agenda was flying to Buffalo to meet with the families of the victims of Flight 3407, he spent much of his time speaking of the U.S. Economy.
“Last month we had the strongest job growth that we’d seen in years,” Obama told the audience at Industrial Support Inc. “Almost all of it was in the private sector and a bunch of it was manufacturing … Next month is going to be stronger than this month. And next year is going to be better than this year.”
“The question is now, how do we keep that momentum going? How do we keep adding more and more jobs?”
Obama was in Buffalo as part of his “White House to Main Street” tour, which has also stopped in places far from Washington, D.C. This tour is focused on small business.
President Obama
“From the middle of 2007 through the end of 2008, small businesses lost 2.4 million jobs,” Obama said. “And because banks shrunk from lending in the midst of the financial crisis, it’s been difficult for entrepreneurs to take out the loans that they need to start a business.”
“I hear a lot of noise from some of our friends out there that say this is nothing more than ‘big government,’” Obama said. “I personally don’t think that giving tax cuts to businesses is big government. I don’t understand how helping businesses get loans so they can grow and hire more workers is big government.”
“We’ve got too many people who are naysayers. (Obama) has got to hold the course,” said William Pienta, district director of United Steelworkers.
“It’s really all about jobs,” said Adam Rizzo, CEO of Solar Liberty Energy Systems Inc. of Buffalo, as he headed into the event.
Obama has been hounded by charges that he is using too much government spending — funded by debt — to create those jobs.
Obama conceded “another debate about big government versus small government: Government is not the true engine of job creation in this country. Businesses are.”
“I can’t think of a better place for the President to talk about creating jobs than Western New York, and I’m looking forward to joining him,” said Congresswoman Louise Slaughter. “When we talk about putting Americans back to work, Western New York is the place to have that discussion. We know the workforce of Western New York is unparalleled in their work ethic and we’ve got the expertise and resources to really grow.”
I was glad to hear that he has such concerns for small businesses, being a business owner myself. I also heard he had the opportunity to go to Duff’s Famous Wings for lunch. You can’t hardly come to Buffalo and not have some of our famous Wings!
Obama’s day was not quite finished after he left Buffalo, he then flew on to New York City to raise money for fellow Democrats and made a surprise appearance at a police computer center.
