Obama Drops Campaign Promise to End Contracting Abuses

President-elect Barack Obama has apparently decided to drop a campaign promise to America's 27 million small business owners to stop the diversion of billions of dollars in government small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms. Obama's February 26th pledge to address the problem has been dropped from the Change.gov website.

In February, President-elect Obama issued the following statement, "Small businesses are the backbone of our nation's economy and we must protect this great resource. It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."

Obama reiterated his pledge to address the problem in his Small Business Emergency Rescue Plan, which was released on October 10th. The Obama Small Business Rescue Plan was included in the Obama-Biden campaign website but was subsequently dropped from the Change.gov website.

Now, any reference to Obama's campaign promise to "end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants" has disappeared completely.

Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found that billions of dollars in federal small business contracts have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms, their subsidiaries and other clearly large firms in the United States and even Europe. The story has been covered by nearly every major newspaper in the nation, over a hundred radio stations, and by ABC, CBS and CNN.

Some of the firms that have been exposed as recipients of federal small business contracts include Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computers, Rolls-Royce, Home Depot, Xerox, John Deere and British Aerospace (BAE).

Report 5-16 from the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA OIG) found that large businesses had received government small business contracts through, "vendor deception" and "false certifications".

In 2005, the SBA OIG issued Report 5-15, which stated, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the entire Federal Government today is that large businesses are receiving small business procurement awards and agencies are receiving credit for these awards."

Over 80 percent of the new jobs in this country are created by our nation's 27 million small businesses, and those small businesses employ over 56 percent of all Americans. If President-elect Obama is serious about helping our nation recover from this economic crisis, he needs to stop Fortune 500 firms from hijacking billions of dollars in federal small business contracts. The surprisingly low priority Obama has given small business issues on his websites is a clear indication this is not going to be a pro small business administration.

Comments

[schatsie]

with small businesses creating 80% of the new jobs... well that was before we went into the second great depression...it will be interesting to see who survives...and now big business is shedding jobs more quickly than you can say 'Holy Sxxt'.

[TruthBeHeard]

Keep up the pressure, Lloyd. President-elect Obama told us many times to hold him accountable and that is just what we should do!

[shaitan]

Have you asked Obama's spokespersons if this is his latest policy--keep giving to the big boys at the expense of small business?

[LeeScho]

No. He hasn't. The word "diversion" was viewed as alienating to those PE Obama needed to enlist to change the practice. The policy has not changed.

[truthtimeisnow]

Who is your source? and how does disagreement with one word justify allowing billions of dollars in small business contracts to flow into the hands of large businesses every year?

[FZliveson]

What a pain it must be to those people who heard Obama's promises for CHANGE
when he is now slowly ratcheting back his position. I did not vote for McCain so don't
mistake me for a disgruntled Rebunknikin. Politics is about making huge promises and
then depending on most people to forget them, or shut up when they see them not being honored.
Sad state of affairs and I hope the man does what he promised, or at least tries hard.
Things look very un-rosy right now. It's been already stated by the man himself that it's gonna
get worse before it gets better. Shame.

[Coinyer101]

we are watching, barack. please stick to your promises, if they are still in the interests of small business and 'main street'.

[canucklivinginUSA]

To fall for that hack's trap