LUTZ SLAMS FILIBUSTER OF $30 BILLION FOR SMALL BUSINESS LOANS; ACCUSES REPUBLICANS OF “SABOTAGING” ECONOMY FOR POLITICAL GAIN

July 29, 2010 (San Diego's East County) – “This is destructive...It’s sabotage,” said Ray Lutz,  Democratic challenger to the 52nd Congressional seat. Lutz was reacting to Senate Republicans' filibuster of the Small Business Lending Fund Act, which would create a $30 billion lending fund for small businesses.  The bulk would be used to help community banks and credit unions start lending money again to local businesses.

Republican Congressman Duncan D. Hunter, Lutz’s opponent, voted no on the measure in the House June 17--four days after telling local business leaders that he shared their concerns over the need to help community banks and credit unions free up funds to lend to small businesses.

At a June 21 meeting with Rancho San Diego-Jamul Chamber of Commerce leaders, Hunter heard from business owners who voiced concerns over lack of lending available for small businesses. He faulted the federal government for punishing small lenders, such as local credit unions and community banks, along with large banks that he agreed merited oversight. “We’ve got to get private lenders freed up again,” Hunter told Chamber leaders, but did not mention that he voted against the Small Business Lending Fund Act just days earlier.

That bill would create a $30 billion small business loan fund to boost lending to small businesses looking to hire and expand their operations—specifically, by providing additional capital to community banks. The legislation also provides $1 billion in financing to support early stage small businesses in the form of true equity financing and $2 billion in funding for new or existing state lending programs, which use small amounts of public dollars to generate substantial private bank financing.
 

Lutz contends that the GOP is “working against America, fighting a bill to help the small business fabric of America, the workhorse of job creation,” Lutz said. “While they cater to their Wall Street masters, they are shirking their fiduciary duty to work FOR America. Republicans are hoping the recession “double-dips” before November, so they can 'win.' The fact that our political system produces officials who actively work against our economy shows us that the system is truly broken.”
 

Lutz, an engineer and small business owner, has proposed a green energy plan that he says would create 1.5 million jobs and cure the nation’s dependency on foreign oil, pushing for solar and biofuel development in a modern “war on energy.”

“We have plenty of work to do, plenty of jobs in our new green economy, but we need to embrace the future and move away from our broken past," he said. "My opponent, Duncan D. Hunter, is part of that past and part of the 'just say no' Republican Party that is betting against our country.”
 

San Diego’s other four Congressional members split down party lines on the measure, which remains blocked in the Senate due to the Republican filibuster. View the roll-call votes here:
 

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2010/roll375.xml. Read the bill’s summary and full text here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-5297.