A bigger Voice for Small Business

White House Mulls Tax Credits for Jobs

by | Dec 3, 2009 | ASBL News

News

White House Mulls Tax Credits for Jobs

By WebCPA Staff
WebCPA.com
December 3, 2009

The White House convened a jobs summit in which President Obama heard from business and union leaders about various proposals for reducing unemployment, including tax incentives  for job creation.

“It’s an idea we find worthy of further consideration,” said Obama.

Obama sat in on some of the discussions, including roundtables on infrastructure investment and green jobs. “There’s a broad consensus that the infrastructure is not where it needs to be,” he said. “How can we measure the costs and benefits of infrastructure investment and make sure that shovel ready means shovel ready.” Obama also heard ideas about how workers can be hired to retrofit buildings with more energy-efficient windows and technology.

Separately, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, introduced a bill that would extend the tax credit for the production of electricity from wind and open-loop biomass through Dec. 31, 2016. “Green energy is a real bright spot in our economic future,” Grassley said in a statement. “We need to keep up the momentum for job creation, a clean environment and energy independence. Getting these tax incentives extended is important to help businesses secure the loans they need to make the investments necessary to create jobs.”

In addition to extending the tax credits, the legislation would increase the amount of bond authority for new clean renewable energy bonds to finance facilities that generate electricity from wind, closed-loop biomass, open-loop biomass, geothermal, small irrigation, hydropower, landfill gas, marine renewable, and municipal trash combustion facilities.

For all businesses, the Grassley bill extends bonus depreciation for one year, so that businesses are able to deduct half of the value of any property placed in service in 2010. The 50 percent first-year bonus depreciation allowance in current law expires at the end of this year. The provision would help wind energy businesses invest in turbines and related equipment.

The jobs summit met with skepticism in some quarters, including a small business advocacy group that wants more small businesses to receive federal contracts.

“Just like President Obama's small business lending forum, his jobs summit looks more like a publicity stunt than a legitimate attempt at helping small businesses and creating jobs,” said American Small Business League president Lloyd Chapman. He believes Obama should push for the passage of H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act of 2009, which would redirect up to $400 million a day in current federal infrastructure spending back to small businesses where over 97 percent of net new jobs are created.

“If you are a big corporation, right now the credit markets are working for you,” said Obama. “But if you are a small business, you are still seeing credit frozen and we are going to unlock that.”

Source:  http://www.webcpa.com/news/White-House-Mulls-Tax-Credits-Jobs-52607-1.html

Congress Considers Jobs Bill

by | Dec 3, 2009 | Press Release

Press Release

Congress Considers Jobs Bill

December 3, 2009

Petaluma, Calif. - In May of 2009, Congressman Hank Johnson (D-4-GA) introduced H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act of 2009, which would create millions of new jobs by stopping the diversion of billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 corporations and other corporate giants.  The bill currently has the bipartisan support of 18 other cosponsors, and chambers of commerce and business organizations around the country.

The American Small Business League (ASBL) points to H.R. 2568 as the simplest and most effective economic stimulus proposed to date.

Since 2003, twenty-five federal investigations have found billions of dollars in fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs, which have diverted billions of dollars away from legitimate small businesses and into the hands of Fortune 500 corporations.  According to the latest information released by the Obama Administration the top recipient of federal small business contracts was Textron, a Fortune 500 corporation with 43,000 employees, and $14 billion in annual revenue. Other firms that are receiving federal small business contracts include: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, British Aerospace (BAE), Ssangyong Corporation headquartered in Seoul, South Korea and Finmeccanica SpA, which is located in Italy with 73,000 employees.  https://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html, https://www.asbl.com/documents/20090825TopSmallBusinessContractors2008.pdf   

The ASBL has estimated that if passed, H.R. 2568 would redirect more than $100 billion a year in government contracts to small businesses in the middle class economy. Following the 2008 presidential election, President Obama's transition team estimated that every billion dollars spent on federal infrastructure projects would create 40,000 jobs. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/07/us/politics/07radio.html?fta=y  

Based upon the Obama Administration's own findings, H.R. 2568 would create four million new jobs, while cutting unemployment and saving thousands of small businesses from bankruptcy.

"This is the most efficient, cost effective economic stimulus anyone has proposed to date and I challenge anyone to disprove that," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "I would love to hear what President Obama's economists think about a bill that would perpetually redirect between $100 and $130 billion a year in existing federal infrastructure spending to the middle class economy.  The Administration claims that it has allocated $17.3 billion in stimulus to small businesses, I would not be surprised if it was less than half that.  America's rapidly rising national unemployment numbers demand a BIG solution, and H.R. 2568 is that BIG solution."

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Obama Doesn't Need Another Forum to Cut Unemployment

by | Dec 2, 2009 | Press Release

Press Release

Obama Doesn't Need Another Forum to Cut Unemployment

December 2, 2009

The Obama Administration is Missing the Boat on Job Creation

On Thursday, December 3, President Barack Obama will host a forum on jobs and economic growth to supposedly come up with ideas to cut the highest unemployment numbers in 30 years. I think the President's jobs forum is just another dog and pony show, concocted by the White House press office to boost the president's poll numbers.

The solution to cutting unemployment is actually quite simple, and I think President Obama and his top advisors are well aware of it.

Based on the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, 98 percent of all U.S. firms have less than 100 employees. These small businesses are where most Americans work, and they are responsible for the majority of the nation's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Most importantly, these small businesses are responsible for over 97 percent of all net new jobs in America. http://www.inc.com/news/articles/200708/data.html


Considering the fact that small businesses are responsible for over 97 percent of all net new jobs, how much of the economic stimulus funds would you allocate to small business if you were sincerely trying to cut unemployment and create jobs? 95 percent? 80 percent? At least 50 percent? The truth is that less than 1 percent of the $2.7 trillion in economic stimulus funds allocated by the Obama Administration have gone directly to small businesses. That is obviously why the unemployment rate has been virtually unaffected by the government's economic stimulus plans.

We don't have any more money to throw away on another ill-conceived economic stimulus package packed with pork and campaign paybacks. One of the simplest, most cost effective and efficient ways to stimulate the national economy is to redirect existing federal infrastructure spending to small businesses.

Guess what? We already have a 55-year-old law, a federal agency, and an extensive national network of federal employees to accomplish just that. It's called the Small Business Act, and it was passed in 1953. The Small Business Act requires that a minimum of 23 percent of the total value of all federal contracts be awarded to small businesses. That makes sense doesn't it? Since most American's work for a small business, and since small businesses create over 97 percent of all new jobs, let's give them a minimum of 23 percent of all federal contracts.

There's only one problem that needs to be addressed to boost our nation's failing economy and create millions of jobs coast-to-coast. Since 2003, twenty-five... that's TWENTY-FIVE federal investigations have found rampant fraud, abuse, loopholes and a flagrant lack of oversight by the Small Business Administration (SBA) and every other federal agency has allowed most federal small business contracts to wind up in the hands of Fortune 500 firms and some of the largest companies around the world. https://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html

In 2005, the SBA Office of Inspector General referred to the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today." https://www.asbl.com/documents/05-15.pdf For five consecutive years the SBA OIG has named the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as the #1 management challenge facing the agency. http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/oig_reports_tmc_fy10.pdf

Why don't we kill three birds with one stone and finally stop the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants? One, President Obama could keep his February 2008 campaign promise to, "end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." Two, we could finally end a federal contracting scandal that has gone on for over a decade. Three, we could redirect up to $130 billion a year in current federal infrastructure spending to small businesses and the middle class economy. http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php

Here's the best part, I drafted a bill over two years ago that will accomplish all three of these goals. It's titled, H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act. In May of 2009, Congressman Hank Johnson (D-4-GA) introduced the bill, and to date it has 18 other cosponsors. H.R. 2568 is a simple bill. The Small Business Act defines a small business as a firm that is "independently owned," and it is this clause that excludes publicly traded firms from being considered a small business. H.R. 2568 is based on this clause and simply states that the federal government can no longer report awards to publicly traded firms as small business awards; a simple, free and easy solution.

The Obama Administration is claiming they have allocated $17.4 billion of the $785 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (AARA) to small businesses.

H.R. 2568 would redirect over $100 billion a year, every year from now on, to the 27 million American small businesses that create over 97 percent of all net new jobs in America.

All President Obama needs to do to keep his campaign promise, halt billions of dollars a week in contracting fraud and abuse, redirect billions of dollars in existing federal infrastructure spending to middle class America and create millions of new jobs across the nation is to pass H.R. 2568.

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Mean Street: The Sham of a Mockery of an Obama Jobs Summit

by | Dec 2, 2009 | ASBL News

News

Mean Street: The Sham of a Mockery of an Obama Jobs Summit

By Evan Newmark
Wall Street Journal
December 2, 2009

What is it about Thursday’s White House “jobs summit” that rubs me the wrong way?

All presidents engage in these sorts of elaborate PR stunts. Why not just dismiss it as another meaningless piece of Washington political theater?

I should. But I can’t. And that’s because this jobs summit seems an unusually pointless and cynical waste of time.

Obamanomics — the White House’s jumble of industrial policy, massive deficit spending and tax hikes — isn’t working.

There are now 15.7 million Americans without jobs. And a big White House conference on jobs is nothing more than a soft distraction from those hard facts.

Now, I’ve never been to a White House summit, so I can’t say exactly what will happen on Thursday. But as a past Davos World Economic Forum participant, I’m pretty familiar with these kinds of VIP schmooze and snoozefests.

And here’s how it will likely play out. A senior White House official — perhaps the president — will give a welcome pep talk to the 130 gathered “summiteers.” He’ll ply them with thanks and stirring patriotic words.

But then he’ll urge them to not waste the day in conference fuzzy talk. Instead, the summiteers should turn words into actions and actions into jobs. After all, it is a “jobs” summit.

And then the summiteers will shuffle off to one of six working groups — where of course they’ll end up wasting the day in conference fuzzy talk.

It’s inevitable. Prepared remarks, banal anecdotes and empty debates are the stuff of these mushy forums. I can count on one hand the number of memorable moments from the dozens of my Davos sessions on technology super-revolutions, entrepreneurial innovation and world peace.

That’s because the VIPs at these things aren’t there to say or do anything unexpected.

Do you think that FedEx CEO Fred Smith and United Steelworkers President Leo Girard will somehow reach agreement that the best way to create jobs is to kill the union-card check?

Do you think that Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, will suddenly serve up innovative ideas for trade unions to assist small businesses?

It seems unlikely.

And so the jobs summit will fail for the same reason Obamanomics is failing: The White House mistakenly believes economic growth and new jobs are created by society’s stakeholders — business, labor and government — cooperatively working together.

But that’s not the way capitalism works. It doesn’t take a village to create a new job. It takes a businessman trying to make another buck.

Of course, you won’t hear too much of this “greed is good” uber-capitalism stuff at the jobs summit. Not too many of the summiteers would dare. Do you think Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, now in the middle of acquiring NBC Universal, will tell the gathering what he really thinks of government intervention in the economy?

But the White House knows this. And it knows that it really doesn’t matter. This jobs summit isn’t meant to be a “real” jobs summit.

A “real” jobs summit would focus on how American businesses can win globally. A “real” jobs summit would consider why Texas can compete for jobs and California can’t. A “real” jobs summit would look at permanent corporate and payroll tax cuts. And a “real” jobs summit would actually embrace debate, not stifle it.

But in Washington, it’s the form that counts more than the substance. And no doubt, this summit will have plenty of good form. Each of the summit working groups will work their whiteboards and somehow come up with a list of “deliverables” and “next steps.” There will be nice words drafted for White House press releases.

At the end of the day, the President will stand up, thank everyone and close the job summit by declaring it a “success”.

And then everyone will file out of the White House and go back to their regular jobs, having done little to nothing on December 3rd to create any new ones.

Source:  http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/12/02/mean-street-the-sham-of-a-mockery-of-an-obama-jobs-summit/