Obama ordered a half-size 'Super Sub' to go — the shop's version of an Italian combo
“This town, Edison, was named after somebody who was not only one of history’s greatest inventors but also a pretty savvy small business owner,” said Obama after meeting with the businessmen and women at the tiny but renowned Tastee Sub Shop on Plainfield Avenue for about 25 minutes. “The small business people who are with me here today exemplify that same entrepreneurial spirit.”
The bill, which the Senate is expected to vote on as early as today, would provide small businesses with tax breaks and loan guarantees, including exempting certain small business investments from the capital gains tax. It would also create a $30 billion pool for community banks to encourage small business lending.
Obama arrived at the sub shop at about 2:10pm, entering through the back. Edison Mayor Antonia Ricigliano (D) entered the front door. Five small business owners were waiting for him at a small rectangular table set up in front of some soft drink coolers: Tastee co-owner David Thornton; restaurant owner Theo Matsorakos; Ridigid Paper Tube Company owners Tom and Catherine Horsburgh; and Brian Bovio, who runs a company that focuses on energy savings.
Obama ordered the half-size “Super Sub’ to go.
“I want everybody to know when I was 20 I could order a 12-inch. I’m turning 49 next week, which means I need just the half,” he said.
The business owners who attended were receptive to the president’s message. They said Obama already knew some basic details about their businesses and began by asking them questions about them.
Tom Horsburgh, who with his wife Catherine owns the Ridgid Paper Tube Company in Wayne, said he emphasized the need for more hands-on technical education in the nation’s school system.
“It has to be more. The people who are coming in looking for work, they don’t have any trade skills whatsoever. They can’t read a tape meassure. They don’t know one end of the hammer from the other,” Hosburgh told reporters. s a registered Republican but would not say if he voted for Obama in 2008.
Theo Matsorakos, who owns a family-run restaurant in Rochelle Park, has taken out four loans from the Small Business Adminsitration. He said if the bill continues exempting small business owners from loan fees, he will continue to make use of them.
“I’d take out a loan tomorrow,” said Matsorakos.
President Barack Obama arrives at Newark Liberty International Airport for visit to New Jersey.A couple dozen tea party activists showed up to protest with Gadsden Flags and signs questioning whether the Obama administration had provided job growth. One sign read “Liar N Chief.” The protestors were led by Highlands Mayor Anna Little, who’s running for Congress as a Republican in the 6th District, which includes part of Edison.
“We’re trying to send the message to President Obama that in New Jersey we’ve lost over 85,000 jobs since January, 2009, that our unemployment rate has been stagnant at over 9 percent since May of 2009, that the stimulus did not create jobs for us, rather it created debt, deficit and taxes for our children and grandchildren,” said Little.
While some surrounding states are rebounding from the recession, New Jersey remains mired in the economic doldrums and could be among the last states to emerge, The New York Federal Reserve Bank said last week. The Garden State has been hit hard by pharmaceutical industry consolidation, the shrinking of its manufacturing base and slow public sector job growth, bank economists said. The state’s 9.6 percent unemployment rate is just above the national average of 9.5 percent.
The blue-collar Garden State stopover contrasts with two ritzy fundraisers Obama plans to attend in New York City tonight after he appears on ABC’s “The View”: at the Four Seasons Hotel, and at the townhouse of famed Vogue Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour. Obama’s sub cost $4.41. The fundraisers, to benefit the Democratic National Committee, cost $30,400 a head, according to multiple news reports.
Press pool contributed to this report.
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