The message from President Barack Obama is: We must give small businesses the tools they need to create the jobs America needs.

Small businesses are the biggest engine for job creation, having created nearly 65 percent of the net new jobs over the last 15 years. In this tough economic climate, small businesses face tightened credit and other obstacles that have hurt the ability to grow. Solving these problems is a key piece of Mr. Obama's jobs plan.

First, small businesses need tax incentives to create new jobs quickly. Mr. Obama proposed a temporary tax credit of $5,000 per new hire and more reimbursements for wage increases 1 million-plus small businesses. The credit will go to them in every quarter, encouraging new hires.

The plan calls for eliminating capital gains taxes on small business investments and providing other tax incentives.

Second, we should offer smaller banks the additional capital they need to expand their small business lending.

To do that, the president proposed a $30 billion small business lending fund designed to provide incentives for community and smaller banks to increase their lending to creditworthy small businesses. Local banks make more than half of loans to small businesses.

This fund will dictate that the more a bank increases its small business lending, the lower the rate it will pay on its capital -- as low as 1 percent.

For small banks that -- with just a little more assistance -- would take more risk in lending to viable small businesses, we've asked Congress to extend the successful Recovery Act provisions for Small Business Administration loans.

Through these provisions, the SBA waived fees and increased the government-backed guarantee in our largest loan programs. Over the past year, this has resulted in $20 billion in loan support for tens of thousands of small businesses across the country -- filling a market gap in lending caused by the recession.

With funds running out this month, the president has called to extend these provisions through at least September. He also has asked Congress to permanently increase the size limits in these loan programs which help small businesses buy more equipment, real estate and other critical assets.

But we can't stop there. Last week, the president announced two more temporary changes.

The first would raise the cap on SBA's "Express" loans which give small businesses the working capital to restock inventories and boost sales. The plan is to increase the limit on these loans from $350,000 to $1 million. The second change would help small businesses that occupy their own commercial real estate. Many mortgages are maturing soon, but even profitable small businesses making payments on time may have trouble refinancing and face foreclosure.

Finally, we should provide targeted support to the most innovative small businesses.

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