I feel like I'm one of the only people in the country not fooled by Barack Obama's speeches. I have met and spoken with him. I worked on his campaign and endorsed him for president. I appeared on dozens of radio shows advocating for his election. Yet he hasn't done anything he said he would do for small businesses, and he's certainly not the man we hoped he would be.
According to U.S. Census Bureau data, small businesses create more than 90 percent of all net new jobs. Small businesses are responsible for more than half the GDP, half the private sector workforce and more than 90 percent of U.S. exports -- based on that data, Obama's economic policies are completely illogical. But you would never know that from watching the mainstream media.
Let's take a look at the reality of his policies.
• In February 2008, he released a statement saying: "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." Yet he has failed to prevent large corporations from hijacking federal small business contracts. During FY 2010, 60 of the top 100 companies receiving small business contracts were actually large businesses, including Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, British Aerospace (BAE), AT&T, and Italian defense giant Finmeccanica.
• He failed to restore the SBA's budget and staffing. The SBA's budget was higher when Ronald Reagan was president than it is today.
• Under the guise of streamlining government, he is planning to close the SBA by combining it with the Department of Commerce. I can't believe he called a press conference to announce savings of $3 billion over a decade. I challenge anyone to tell me the last time a U.S. President called a national press conference to announce saving such an insignificant amount of money. That $3 billion dollars is infinitesimal compared to the nearly $6 trillion the Pentagon will spend during the same time period.
• He failed to halt the elimination of one of the nation's oldest and most successful programs to direct federal infrastructure spending to minority owned companies. His administration had until February 26, 2009 to appeal a district court decision that dismantled the Pentagon's statutory 5 percent minority-owned small business contracting goal but refused to do so. As of today, he has refused to take any action to preserve the minority-contracting program. I think this is front-page news but it has gone unreported in the mainstream media.
• In total, less than 3 percent of his administration's stimulus funds went to small businesses. The majority of stimulus funds that have gone to Fortune 1000 firms that haven't created one net new job in over 30 years. It's no wonder our nation's unemployment rate is alarmingly high.
• He reduced transparency in federal contracting data by removing the parent company Duns Number from the public's view in the federal government's procurement database, which makes it easier for large businesses to commit contracting fraud and hijack small business contracting dollars. Federal investigators and watchdog groups use the parent company duns number to catch large contractors that try to pass off their divisions or subsidiaries as small businesses.
• He reduced transparency in federal small business contracting programs by apposing the release of information under the Freedom of Information Act that would prove that large prime contractors have received billions of dollars in federal small business contracts. A study by the AP found that the Obama administration is less transparent than the George W. Bush administration.
• He renewed a program that allows prime contractors to ignore their small business subcontracting goals. The Comprehensive Subcontracting Plan Test Program (CSPTP), which is a 20-year-old TEST program, has never been evaluated and allows prime contractors to avoid subcontracting requirements of the Small Business Act.
Again, when you realize that small businesses are the engine of job creation and economic growth, I can't think of any other way to describe President Obama than anti-small business. And he's clearly owned and controlled by the Fortune 1000 companies that want every single federal contracting dollar
Like I always say: if you stop listening to Obama read his speeches and start watching what he does, he's anti-small business.
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The much more likely reason is that no small business people have his ear or move money like large businesses do. The problem with your assessment is the suggestion that a president who's had jobs or ran a business would act differently - it's almost certain they wouldn't.
The"Free Market" does have a hand...and it's very visible...
Where do you draw the line?
But what you're asking is a question we should examine more closely because politicians are misusing the term and the funds that were meant to develop them.
You complain that the President has failed to finance your pet programs--NEWS FLASH! Congress holds the power of the purse. The President doesn't have the authority to fund anything.
You complain the President has failed to reauthorize your pet programs--NEWS FLASH! Only Congress can pass authorizing legislation.
The President makes his priorities, agenda, and preferences known, and doesn't vary from them, but because Congress declines to provide the funding and authorizing legislation the President would like its the President who is at fault?
And small businesses create jobs in response to consumer demand--unless the government is foolish enough to waste taxpayer money financing their speculative ventures instead of trying to put more people to work at increased wages so that consumer demand drives small business growth--and jobs.
There's a time-worn adage about those who think everyone is crazy, except them. It definitely applies here.
Published: Wednesday, 25 Jan 2012 | 4:37 PM ET
And, like the Republican primaries, each one tells a different story. A survey released this week from Manta, an online community for small businesses, reveals that business owners believe President Barack Obama is the biggest supporter of small business. He was the favorite with 32 percent of respondents.
Among the Republican candidates, Ron Paul was first, with 20 percent.
So, if business owners are looking to the Republicans to fix things, who will be their guy? Not Ron Paul. Asked, “Who is the strongest GOP candidate?” Mitt Romney received more than double the votes of any other Republican candidate: 38 percent. Ron Paul was second with 19 percent.
Lloyd.......you have been exposed....but nice try....unfortunately for you...google exists and it takes.. but 10 seconds to search ('small business+obama+romney").......
Being limited to bad and worse is a bigger problem than who is elected next term.
Small Business cannot and should not be defined by accounting and taxation methodology!
We would get a lot further in these discussions if we called things what they are, not what helps our argument. An LLC with a "campus" and enough people to slow traffic at the end of the work day .. is clearly NOT a small business. 50 is small, 5000 is not.
The sizes of business are not just "small" and "big", where's medium ??? Don't scale everything based on large corporations. Real small businesses are everywhere.
Unfortunately, those who are elected and truly support small business are never given the credit they deserve or worse get tarred by not considering the good of all.
Small telecoms and ISPs and energy co-ops are just one example of big business interfering to stop small business. The entertainment business, pharmaceuticals also work against small business. Even the Chamber of Commerce has lobbied for legislation that hurts small business.