It was almost a year ago that The MicroEnterprise Journal was covering the how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act was taking shape even before Barack Obama had been sworn into office. And what I was saying at the time was that there was not much in it that would directly benefit microbusinesses. Fast forward to early 2010 and we find the economy still limping painfully along and a White House that is eager to change the subject away from national security. The House has passed what it calls a jobs bill … literally. It is called the Jobs for Main Street Act of 2010.

It really should be called ARRA Again, because that’s what it is. More infrastructure spending. More extensions of social safety net benefits like unemployment insurance. Continued SBA loan guarantee increases and elimination of borrower fees. All of which is likely to be as useful to microbusinesses as I told you it would be last year (and I was right). On the other hand, this is not what the President has proposed as his plan to stimulate job growth. What he does want to do — zero out capital gains taxes for small business investment, temporarily cut payroll taxes and extend a few ARRA small business provisions — aren’t likely to help most microbusinesses, either. In general, the policies that have been coming out of the White House to reverse this terrible recession have been rather pedestrian. In view of the recklessness that got us into this mess, that may not be such a bad thing. But one might just as easily make an argument that, in the face of such a deep and unprecedented economic crisis, a bit more creativity in the realm of economic policy may have been more appropriate.