President Obama cast his latest economic pitch yesterday as a matter of patriotism, urging the Senate to ditch its partisan mode at least long enough to pass a package of tax cuts and loan relief for small businesses.
On his way to his own political activity — two high-dollar fund-raisers for Democrats — Obama sought his own classic American setting. He ate a meat-stacked sandwich and then spoke at Tastee Sub Shop in Edison, N.J., a tiny one-story building meant to serve as the essence of the American small business.
In Washington, Senate majority leader Harry Reid had hoped to schedule a Senate vote on the small-business bill, but Republican leaders said they wanted the opportunity to offer amendments to the measure. Leaders of both parties said they were unable to reach an agreement before the Senate adjourned for the day.
“Surely, Democrats and Republicans ought to be able to agree on this bill,’’ Obama said, despite the consistent lack of any such consensus on Capitol Hill. Obama said he told Republican leaders at the White House a day earlier that key elements of the bill are ones that the GOP has supported for years.
“Helping small businesses, cutting taxes, making credit available,’’ Obama said from a presidential lectern that had been brought into the restaurant. “This is as American as apple pie. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. They are central to our identity as a nation. They are going to lead this recovery.’’
The bill in question is designed to help small businesses get the capital they need to buy equipment, hire workers, and expand their operations. The business message was but a stop yesterday on Obama’s broader mission. He was stepping up his fund-raising efforts as the midterm elections draw closer and Democrats need money to battle a Republican Party energized in part by voter concern over government spending and regulations.
In New York, Obama taped an interview on the talk show “The View’’ that will air today.
Obama is headlining four Democratic fund-raisers in three days and hosting another four events next week. -- ASSOCIATED PRESS
With lawmakers preparing to head home to their districts to campaign during the August recess, Democratic leaders sought to show that all Republicans are cut from the same cloth as such Tea Party movement favorites as Senate candidates Sharron Angle of Nevada and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Timothy Kaine, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, flanked by a half-dozen House members, released “The Republican Tea Party Contract on America,’’ a 10-point list Kaine warned would become the Republican agenda if the GOP were to return to power after the November midterm elections.
Among the items are some that are supported by the Republican congressional leadership, such as repealing the health care overhaul and extending Bush-era tax cuts. But many of the items — including ending Medicare, repealing the 17th Amendment that provides for the direct election of senators, and abolishing the departments of Education and Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency — have been endorsed only by select candidates or lawmakers not part of the party leadership.
Still, Kaine argued that even fringe elements of the movement are now part of the Republican mainstream.
“The Republican Party agenda has become the tea party agenda and vice versa,’’ he said. -- WASHINGTON POST 
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