The Obama administration has quietly adopted a series of anti-small business policies that will cost small businesses and minority-owned small businesses billions of dollars a month.
In the midst of the worst economic downturn in U.S. history, President Obama is abolishing the nation's oldest and most successful program to direct infrastructure spending to minority-owned small businesses, which could cost them between $25 and $50 billion a year. The President has continued to allow billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to be diverted into the hands of big businesses. His administration tried to cover up the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants by destroying data in the Federal Procurement Data System such as the "small business flag" and the "parent DUNS number," that allowed watchdogs like myself, and the media, to monitor the actual recipients of federal small business contracts.
And now, President Obama will reauthorize a Department of Defense program known as the Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program (CSPTP) that makes it easier for prime contractors to cheat small businesses out of billions. Under the CSPTP, large defense contractors are exempt from reporting their subcontracting actions and also exempt from any penalty of non-compliance with congressionally mandated small business procurement goals.
The idea of the CSPTP is ludicrous.
Originally passed in 1990, the CSPTP is now a 21-year-old test program. Since it was established with the stated mission of increasing federal contracts for small businesses, the CSPTP has never been investigated for it's effectiveness, despite a demand from five members of Congress in October 2010 that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate the program. "Federal contracting data calls into question whether ... participants in the CSPTP are actually meeting their small business subcontracting goals," the Representatives' letter to the GAO said.
The American Small Business League has long maintained that the CSPTP allows large defense contractors to circumvent the Small Business Act, which requires that 23 percent of all federal contracts must be with small businesses.
With his approval of the 2012 NDAA, President Obama is opting to allow the Pentagon to prevent disclosure of federal spending to the public, media and congress, as well as eliminate all penalties for contractors that defraud small businesses.
In October, SBA Inspector General Peggy Gustafson testified before the House Small Business Committee, confirming that the diversion of federal small business contracts to large corporations has been a top management challenge for the SBA and the entire federal government for the past seven consecutive years.
President Obama acknowledged the magnitude of the problem during his campaign in Feb. 2008, when he stated, "it is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."
Unfortunately, he has failed on that promise-- and every day of his administration the President quietly allows billions of dollars in federal funds that by law should be reserved for middle class firms to be diverted to some of the largest companies in the world.
The bottom line here is that in the U.S., small businesses equal jobs. Taxes, on the other hand do not create jobs. But for some reason, the mainstream media seems more concerned with the handful of pennies that the President and Congress are bickering over in payroll tax cuts than the billions of dollars that are diverted away from small businesses by the federal government every month.
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I wrote this blog to bring attention to the fact that the President is about to approve policies that seriously harm small business. I would have done the same for any President about to make such a mistake. If you do your homework, you might notice that I was heavily critical of President Bush's moves to eliminate the U.S. Small Business Administration's funding.This isn't a Republican vs. Democract issue this is a "we the people" issue.
Keep fighting for small business, they are a significant part of a solution for adding more jobs in this country. Everyone of the companies I work with are planning incremental hiring next year. That is a good thing.
Who else could end programs ensuring at least 5% of small business contracts go to minorities, and let all those small business contracts go right to big business mega-corps? The only way to actually heal this country economically is break up monopolies and encourage small businesses. The opposite has been happening for years.
If cutting out the middle man reduces gov't spending then we should do it.
It would at least expose the fact that big companies like HP, IBM, etc all get amazing access to sell stuff to the government without real competitive bidding; small businesses only get the scraps as it is.
TL;DR: this guy's article is suspect.
Have the Justice Department hire Elliot Spitzer NOW to head a squad of untouchables to remove any crooks he can find from government, the banks, Wall Street, Main Street or wherever they are discovered.
Produce change by getting rid of the IRS and all of it's special interest rules that kill job creation and replace it with the FAIR TAX H.R 25 S.13.
Reinstate Glass-Steagle HR 1489, repeal Gramm-Leach-Bliley, pass Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge Act HR 1148, repeal the unlimited Fannie and Freddie Christmas guarantees , audit the Fed, perhaps even eliminate the Fed, repeal Obama Care and add a real government option to compete with private insurers and care providers for patients by offering free care to everyone asking for government funded care that would be given from low cost, government operated, VA style better patient outcome, hospitals for civilians, all paid for with a national sales tax, no insurance, no copays, free period, complete birth to death healthcare including free medications, dental and eye care, this could save $1trillion annually from the $2.6trillion spent last year and prevent private health insurers and providers from bankrupting us, our businesses, all of our states and the Federal Government.
Pass Buffett Congressional Reform Law and Constitutional Amendment
Breakup all of the too big to fail institutions.
Last cut the special interest red tape that is preventing us from having drastically lower cost oil, gas, energy, food.
Which makes no sense at all!
It's gotten much worse over the past ten years.
The author and commenters should read the material before they throw in their 2¢.