Obama Refusing to Give Contracts to Small Businesses as Unemployment Continues to Rise
According to the most recent data from the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS-NG), the Obama Administration is continuing to award billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to corporate giants.
The top recipient was Fortune 500 firm Textron, which received $775.7 million in federal small business contracts. In addition to Textron, Ssangyong Corporation, which is headquartered in Seoul, South Korea received over $254 million in small business contracts; and Finmeccanica SpA, which is headquartered in Italy with 73,000 employees, received over $283 million.
Other firms included in the Obama Administration's small business data were: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, AT&T, 3M Corporation, Xerox, Dell Computer, Booz Allen Hamilton, Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Staples, Office Depot, British Aerospace (BAE), Rolls-Royce and French firm Thales Communications.
In February of 2009, Bechtel Bettis Inc. received a $128 million small business contract from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under the Obama Administration.
(http://www.asbl.com/documents/20090806BechtelSB_DOE.pdf)
Since 2003, more than 15 federal investigations have found that every year billions of dollars in federal small business contracts are diverted to corporate giants. Report 5-15 from the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General referred to the problem as, "One of the most important challenges facing the SBA and the entire federal government today." (http://www.asbl.com/documents/05-15.pdf)
In February of 2008, President Obama recognized the problem when he stated, "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)
To date, the Obama Administration has not adopted any policies or legislation to honor that campaign promise.
On Friday, October 2, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) announced that unemployment hit 9.8 percent in the month of September. Moreover, DOL announced that when factoring in frustrated workers who have dropped out, taken part-time work or haven't looked recently; unemployment could be as high as 17 percent.
The American Small Business League (ASBL) believes unemployment is on the rise as a result of the Obama Administration's refusal to stop the diversion of billions of dollars a month in federal contracts earmarked for small businesses to corporate giants.
It's hard not to question President Obama's sincerity about creating jobs when he is giving billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to corporate giants around the world. Until we stop this problem, unemployment is going to continue to rise.
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So, it seems like, if we get more contracts to small businesses, then small business would be overloaded and have a TON of work...so they would hire new people to deal with the increase in contracts, and pay those people moneys...which would be spent in the American economy. SO, if we get contracts to the right people, we all win. This is too easy. I’m running for politics. I feel like a genius right now.
I call shenanigans.
Wow.. I wonder where the ecoonomy would be if these funds meant to be spent with Small Businesses were ACTUALLY spent with small businesses.
Lets just say this, I don't think it would get much worse ..
Why would he give money to small businesses? The U.S. economy is by no means dominated by giant corporations. Fully 99 percent of all independent enterprises in the country employ fewer than 500 people.
If the goal is soaring unemployment, depression of wages and benefits, and the disenfranchisement of the working/Middle class to limit their political power, then Obama will continue to award those monies to the people who put him in office--Multinational corporations and Wall Street.
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These days it seems like his goals are consistent with as you said it, "soaring unemployment, depression of wages and benefits, and the disenfranchisement of the working/Middle class to limit their political power."
Lloyd, thanks for the reply, and I am a fan, so let me ask you what no one else seems willing to answer so far.
Every Blogger and their brother has written about how we got here and how bad it is. Many make guesses about where it all is going.
But NO ONE seems willing to lay out a program for the People that will enable them to protect what little they have and weather the storm. We see a few folks challenging the foreclosure apparatus and forming activist groups in that arena. Some writers have suggested that moving our money out of the major wall street vampire squids into local credit unions would protect our savings while depriving the banks of the blood they need to live.
Those are two basic moves middle class, working people--the folks who work for those small businesses you wrote about--can begin with. But there must be much much more we can do, so that the oligarchs are not once again the only class to emerge from this architected crisis intact.
I don't know why our celebrity writers shy away from this issue. It seems to me that such a populist information resource would catapult the one who supplied it into a very high profile position.
Any help?
This is totally outrageous. Thanks for all your hard work Lloyd.
Since this affects so many people, this should be on the front page!
Lloyd, your passion on this issue is inspiring, unfortunately, the information makes me want to cry. To use an Obamaism, I have "hope" that he will step up and bring about the "change" that the small business community needs, but I am not holding my breath. Politicians are politicians and money is power in Washington and even Obama is not above this golden rule.
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It's more than just money is power in Washington... As President Dwight D. Eisenhower said in 1961:
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist."
While normally I don't care too much for Eisenhower, but he was right on the mark when he raised the concerns over the military-industrial complex, and unfortunately, things have just gotten worse since then. These big business interests wield too much power in Washington. I get concerned when the politicians seem to focus on a companies bottom line and not on the people.
Another problem to solve among numerous others. Sigh... You provide very interesting and disturbing statistics. If I may be a bit critical though, your analysis as to the "why" is simplistic.
For example, have you made any verifications about some legislation in the works in Congress about the attribution of contracts ? From an interview of Nancy Pelosi many weeks ago, I got the impression that the democrats were working on this.
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The Democratic leadership has been maintaining that they are working on legislation in Congress to address attribution of contracts for what seems like years, but to date they have produced nothing. The only legislation that has been produced to address this issue came from non-small business committee member Congressman Hank Johnson (D-GA-4). The bill, H.R. 2568, the Fairness and transparency in Contracting Act of 2009, would stop the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations, but Dem party leadership like Nancy Pelosi and Nydia Velázquez (chair of the SB committee) will not push the bill forward. I wonder why? To date, the bill has 15 co-sponsors and more than 50 chamber and business organization supporters. It seems Pelosi and Velázquez are great at giving the impression of action without doing anything.
Lloyd - first of all, you rock. Secondly, I will tell you why the leadership in Congress has not done a damn thing to help small businesses - THEY DON"T CARE about small businesses. Small business issues are a great "talking point" come election and fundraising time, but when it comes time to actually do something...well, I guess that time never actually comes. The other problem is that the leadership takes so much money from big business interests that they have no reason to help small business, its a shame.
Big biz well-connected cronie contractors getting government money? Shocking.
At least giving $856 billion for big pharma and big insurance, ooops, I mean "health care" will be different this time ..... surely this $856 billion will break from 200 years of tradition and be spent wisely and with contracts given to the best companies.... it will be great to have all those new hospitals and doctors..... oh no, wait.... just looked at the bill --- I guess the $856 billion actually goes to insurance and drug companies..... hmmm So confused
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Bruce, Thanks for commenting. It's more than just big biz well-connected cronie contractors getting government money, its big biz well-connected cronie contractors getting government money slated by law for small businesses. And it's not just a little money, its billions of dollars every month to corporate giants around the world.
More of the same, unfortunately.
My question is why doesn't President Obama just give an executive order saying that anyone caught doing this will be held responsible and prosecuted? There has to be some way to prevent this kind of crap from continuing. What has happened to all those geniuses in our government who are supposed to be looking out for the little guys?
you raise a great question, I think one of the main problems, especially with this issue, is that no one gets punished for breaking the law. From my understanding, I believe there are laws on the books that lay out punishment for large firms that defraud the government and we the taxpayers, yet no one is ever held accountable. The buck has to stop somewhere and it would be nice to see Obama lead on this issue.
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You could not be more right. It is more of the same. That said, President Obama could give an executive order that would put an end to this problem, but it would have to go much farther than just saying anyone caught doing this will be held responsible and prosecuted. There are laws already on the books that are designed to do this, and yet no company has even been prosecuted for these abuses. If President Obama really wanted to keep true to his word, and "stop the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants," he would issue an executive order consistent with H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act of 2009. You can check it out here: http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=h111-2568
Nice article Lloyd, this is one of many agencies that need careful scrutiny from the media. Many of the Bush leave-behinds still inhabit this agency, which leaves small business at the mercy of corporate over-lords.
I'm a strong Obama supporter, that recognize's that our government is corrupt beyond a fault. So many people are left out, with no hope of participating in the recovery of this country.
Thanks again for your honesty!
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You’re welcome, and thank you for speaking out. As you said it, "government is corrupt beyond a fault. So many people are left out, with no hope of participating in the recovery of this country," but it's actually much worse that it seems. We have estimated that every year up to $100 billion in federal contracts intended for small businesses actually go to some of the largest corporations in the world. The companies I listed in the article above are just a sample. Small companies have almost no chance of competing for their fair share of government business, without stopping this problem.
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