Speaking of irony — a subject I mentioned briefly in this week’s Policy Matters column — it’s just my luck that my first full week back from the timeless craziness of political campaigning should have turned out to be a week during which Congress went home for deep breathing and other stress-busting exercises.

A lot of people have said in my hearing that the don’t understand why President Obama is in such a hurry to get health care reform passed but it makes perfect sense to me. If he doesn’t do it now, there is an increasing chance that he won’t be able to get it done at all.

It’s still a year away but those midterm elections have already started to loom in menacing fashion.

That fistful of small business bills covered in this week’s number two story are not especially important in and of themselves except for what they hint about the unexpectedly tortuous process of passing legislation to reauthorize SBA programs and improve them at the same time — even when the same political party is running the show in both chambers of Congress.

Besides, it really is rare for that many pieces of small business legislation to hit the House floor at more or less the same time. That, by itself, is noteworthy.

And I’ll be keeping an eye on that upcoming White House Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth. I’m very curious to see what the guest list ends up looking like.

For further information:

• National Small Business Association
• National Association for the Self-Employed
• H.R. 1839 - To amend the Small Business Act to improve SCORE
• H.R. 3014 - Small Business Health Information Technology Financing Act
• H.R. 1834 - Native American Business Development Enhancement Act of 2009
• H.R. 1842 - Expanding Entrepreneurship Act of 2009
• H.R. 3738 - Small Business Early-Stage Investment Act of 2009
• The President Announces Forum on Jobs and Economic Growth