Obama Plan for SBA Could Spell Disaster for Middle Class Firms
The following press release was put out by the American Small Business League:
Petaluma, Calif. - President Barack Obama's future plans for the Small Business Administration (SBA) are raising concerns within the small business community. The American Small Business League (ASBL) is sounding the alarm and expressing its concerns over President Obama's future plans for the SBA. The ASBL is concerned that President Obama may try to follow through on Bush Administration plans to close the SBA by combining it with the U.S. Department of Commerce.
A recent Obama Administration joint statement between SBA Administrator Karen Mills and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke has fanned the flames of concern over President Obama's plan. ASBL points to the fact that President Obama has broken every campaign promise he has made to the small business community.
During the 2008 presidential election cycle, President Obama promised to restore the SBA's budget, restore the SBA Administrator to a cabinet level position, implement the 5 percent set-aside goal for women owned firms, and stop the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants. To date, President Obama has failed to honor these campaign promises.
In February of 2008, after accepting the endorsement of the ASBL, President Obama released the statement, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." (http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)
On Friday August 21, the Obama Administration released its 2008 small business goaling report. An analysis of the data by the ASBL found that 8 of the top 10 recipients of small business contracts were large businesses, which received 85 percent of the total dollars awarded to those firms. Large businesses also received 64 percent of the total amount of contract dollars awarded to the top 100 recipients of federal small business contract dollars. The largest recipient of federal small business contracts was Textron Inc., which is a Fortune 500 firm with 43,000 employees. (http://www.asbl.com/documents/20090825TopSmallBusinessContractors2008.pdf)
"I don't trust President Obama. He has lied to me, and he has lied to every small business in America by breaking every promise he has made to the small business community," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "I am very concerned that he may try to dismantle all small business programs by combining the SBA with the Commerce Department."
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Please click here to watch ASBL President Lloyd Chapman discuss the ASBL's concerns regarding the Obama Administration's small business plans: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKLK7c_1vX4
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Again, it is the actions that speak louder than words.
It is a sad day for small business. It is politics as usual where money talks.
The problem is that small business has nothing to offer a candidate for president other than the opportunity to spout rhetoric and campaign promises that will be broken.
If small business could actually work together and form a common bond then they could at least cost a politician something that might matter......Votes.
It is not as if the SBA has actually been protecting small business, quite the opposite actually for decades and especially during the Bush Administration little or nothing was done to prevent huge contracts being sent to fortune 500 companies. But now that the SBA, which is already made up of pro-big business Bush puppets, would be merged into the commerce department the center of pro-big business thinking in our beloved Federal government, there is even less potential for positive results for small business holders. It is a sad day when policy is so completely to the polar opposite of what is supposed to do. Not surprising. Just sad.
The thing to realize is that small business issues are nothing more than a talking point for all politicians at election time, if an election is not in the immediate future, then they do not give a damn about small businesses. Whether it is Bush or Obama, if they have an opportunity to get rid of all the small business programs, they will.
All small businesses need to join the American Small Business League in the fight against President Obama and Fortune 500 companies. We need to keep this economy afloat and the only way to do that is to keep small businesses up and running. Barack Obama is not sticking to his word and the promises that he made to the small businesses of America. Keep up the good fight and may the small businesses of America win!
you know what is really interesting is that Obama claims to want to help small business, unlike his predecessor whom we knew did not care at all about small business issues, but yet his actions fall so short. A great example is a bill in Congress right now, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act, if Obama were serious about fixing the federal small business procurement system, he should push to pass this bill immediately, which would be a free and easy way to bring billions of dollars into the pockets of small businesses, yet he never actually does anything. If he wanted, Obama could get that bill passed this week and by Monday small businesses across the country could benefit from a real business stimulus.
It's sad to see Obama picking up exactly where the Bush Administration left off. I voted for Obama because I believed in the change he seemed so passionate for. But now that he's in the oval office, corporate America appears to have bought him out. Another one bites the dust. No follow through on the promises to small businesses, which is ironic, considering he's quoted all over saying things like,
“It is essential that we provide our nation’s small businesses with maximum practicable opportunity to participate in federal government contracting,” and talks about how small businesses are important in restoring the economy because they employ half of the nation’s private-sector workforce and continually create new jobs. Obama knows this, but hasn't followed through on one campaign promise that could fix it!
I seem to remember a document that has the words, "Of the People, By the People and For the People" in it.
The only people the Obama administration represent in the small business community are Jimmy Boeing, Freddy Lockheed, Gunther Martin and Tommy Textron.
I give up,
I am going to open up a small Knick Knack shop in some of the closed businesses I saw next to Wal Mart. I am going to take my individual initiative, pull myself up by the bootstraps and go out and kick Sam Walton's ass by undercutting his price on Jesus candles.
Look for me in Fortune magazine.
Thank you for still voicing this issue still. It is one of the most important issues we small business owners face. Keep up the charge.
"I don't trust President Obama. He has lied to me, and he has lied to every small business in America by breaking every promise he has made to the small business community," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "I am very concerned that he may try to dismantle all small business programs by combining the SBA with the Commerce Department."
Whatever happened to lecturing people about individual initiative and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps? I guess that's just for employees.
See Lloyd Chapman's Profile
What is your position? And are you from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?
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