Coming off a push for health-care reform that stressed political unity, President Barack Obama on Wednesday drew stark partisan lines as he laid out a plan to spur business growth, according to Business First of Columbus.
 
Obama, speaking atCuyahoga Community College in Parma, Ohio, proposed what he described as a “more generous, permanent” extension of the federal research and experimentation tax credit. The president also proposed allowing companies to write off 100 percent of capital investments next year.
 
“This will help small businesses upgrade their plants and equipment, and will encourage large corporations to get off the sidelines and start putting their profits to work in places like Cleveland and Toledo and Dayton,” Obama said.
 
These measures, in addition to a $50 billion infrastructure spending plan Obama announced Monday, amount to hundreds of billions of dollars, but the Obama administration says tax loophole-closing legislation and other measures in the fiscal 2011 budget would support the policies.
 
Obama presented the plan as a Democratic solution to problems Republicans have only let worsen in past years.
 
“That’s what we Democrats believe in: A vibrant free market, but one that works for everybody,” Obama said. “That’s our vision for a stronger economy and a growing middle class. And that’s the difference between what we and the Republicans in Congress are offering the American people right now.”