Obama Small Business Plan Falls Short of Real Solutions

Today, President Barack Obama held a press conference in Landover, MD to announce the administration's plans for a, "New Small Business Lending Initiative." According to President Obama's statements, the initiative would focus almost entirely on increasing the ceilings on government loans to small businesses. (http://bit.ly/47ZRLy)

However, President Obama once again failed to address widespread abuses in federal small business contracting programs, which have lead to the yearly diversion of billions of dollars in contracts intended for small businesses to corporate giants. According to the administration's most recent small business contracting data, which was released on August 21st, 2009, the top recipient of federal small business contracts during fiscal year (FY) 2008 was Textron Inc. Textron is a Fortune 500 corporation, with 43,000 employees and over $14 billion in annual sales. (http://bit.ly/W0EB1)

In addition to Textron, corporate giants like: 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 were included in the Obama Administration's small business contracting data.

Corporate giants in Asia and Europe were also included. During FY 2008, Ssangyong Corporation headquartered in Seoul, South Korea received over $254 million in small business contracts and Finmeccanica SpA, headquartered in Italy with 73,000 employees, received over $283 million.

Since 2003, over 15 federal investigations have found that billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts are diverted to large businesses. (http://bit.ly/3ihWSI)

In February of 2008, President Obama acknowledged the magnitude of the problem and released the statement, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." (http://bit.ly/4fRrGq)

The American Small Business League (ASBL) points to the fact that President Obama has refused to adopt policy or support legislation to address the problem. ASBL projects that legitimate small businesses lose up to $100 billion a year in federal contracts due to rampant abuses in government contracting programs.

If you want to know the truth about President Obama's commitment to small businesses you have to realize that about $1 million a minute in federal small business contracts is going to some of biggest companies around the world. He knows it. He said he would stop it more than a year ago, and yet he has done nothing. Look at the facts.

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Comments

[Read2know]

Increasing the ceiling on small business loans does not fix the problem if they cannot even get loans in the first place. If they want to get out of this economic mess they will need to focus more on what they can really do to help small businesses, not just talk. Making sure small businesses get their fair share of federal contracts would be a good start.

[tarend]

Change we can believe in? I call BS. Looks like business as usual in Washington DC. Obama is looking out for his Fortune 500 and Venture Capitalist sponsors and ignoring the small businesses that really boost the economy.

I mean, what's the point of lining the pockets of the fat cat CEOs of this country while watching everything else go to hell? I'm really getting tired of this.

[Radar423]

I think Obama deserves to win the Heisman Trophy if his new plan works. He is trying to execute a "Hail Mary" by talking about loans for small businesses. It's 4th and 32 and America has the ball on it's own 9 yard line. Obama has decided to not use his best players for the last play, and is substituting cheerleaders for them, hoping to distract the opposing team.

If it works it has the genius of a Heisman trophy written all over it.

[truthtimeisnow]

To quote Congressman Sam Graves:

“I am not convinced the President still has a clue what small businesses need. It has been nine months since the President took office, we’ve lost 3.4 millions jobs since then, and he still has not produced a coherent, workable plan to provide capital to our small businesses. Small businesses were shortchanged in the stimulus and the Obama Administration has apparently just figured that out today. Their announcement to assist banks in loaning to small firms does nothing to incentivize a bank to issue a loan. The President’s rhetoric is tiring and it’s time we listen to our small firms who have actually balanced a budget, made a payroll, and created jobs.”

[GrimJack]

blah blah blah, does Obama have any credibility left on small business issues?

[SBBeliever]

I think the official answer would be ..... NO!

[GrimJack]

to me, whenever I hear Obama, or any politician, talk about small businesses, it sounds like the teach from old peanuts cartoons - "wah wah wah wah, wah wah wah wah wah"

[GreenExec]

Why is it that the only solution the government has to encourage the growth of small business is loan limit increases?? To encourage the growth of large banks they simply give billions of dollars. I don't think either one is a good idea.
Maybe we could meet somewhere in the middle. No handouts no loans just the contracts that current US law assures small businesses they will recieve. It will put liquidity into our markets and put money on the street.

[SBBeliever]

Amen to that!

[SBBeliever]

It's so tiring to see that every time Obama talks about small business, he completely ignores what small business wants to talk about. Like LARGE CORPORATIONS STEALING SMALL BUSINESS CONTRACTS. Do you think he's ignoring it because those same large corporations are some of the greatest financial backers of politicians? Can you say "vested interest?" Business as usual in Washington. No hope, no change. Surprise. And I voted for him. Lot of good that did.

[Ashki]

Seems like everyone in the Obama camp is trying to do everything BUT address the main issue. Obama should focus on issues that are effecting our country and leave the Nobel prize for someone that truly deserves it.