At 9.8 percent, Connecticut’s unemployment rate is now at an all-time high, while nationally, 10.4 percent of the country is without work. When Congressman John Larson took office in 1999, unemployment was at an all-time low, but unemployment numbers have continually risen under his watch.

Long-term jobless -- people out of work more than six months -- was about 44 percent of all people unemployed in February 2010. A year earlier, that number was 24.6 percent. We need to support small businesses: they represent 99.7 percent of all employer firms and employ more than half of all private-sector firms. They have also generated 64 percent of net new jobs over the past 15 years.

Small businesses are the foundation and engine of the American economy. We must support small business and provide an environment to succeed in. When small businesses succeed, America succeeds.

Commercial banks, credit unions and other depository institutions are the largest lenders of debt capital to small businesses. They accounted for almost 65 percent of total traditional credit to small businesses.

Those same small businesses that drive the economy are trapped in a political quandary. The government’s $700 billion Wall Street bailout program, which purchased assets and equity from financial institutions to strengthen its financial sector, sapped the nation’s economic engine -- small business. The Democrats made sure a steady stream of money flowed to Wall Street, but they turned their backs on Main Street. Credit is very difficult for small business to obtain; we need to be proactive, not reactive. Governments don’t create jobs; however they can provide an environment for business to succeed via tax incentives to boost economic growth.