JULIE PACE,Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama exhorted Congress on Monday to make passage of a long-languishing small business aid package its first order of business when it returns next month from its summer break.
“I ask Senate Republicans to drop the blockade,” Obama said in the Rose Garden after meeting with his economic advisers.
Acknowledging that the economy still remains extremely fragile, the president said he’d also have other specific ideas in the days ahead.
He mentioned extending Bush tax cuts due to expire this year for households making under $250,000 a year, upping the nation’s investment in clean energy, rebuilding more roads and highways and tax cuts designed to keep jobs in the United States.