A bigger Voice for Small Business

Why is the Mainstream Media Allowing Obama to Cheat Small Businesses Out of Billions?

by | Feb 3, 2010 | Press Release

Press Release

Why is the Mainstream Media Allowing Obama to Cheat Small Businesses Out of Billions?

February 3, 2010

The most recent data released by the federal government indicates Fortune 500 firms and many of the largest firms in Europe are currently receiving billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts. The latest data released by the Obama Administration indicates Textron Inc. was the largest recipient of federal small business contracts. Textron is a Fortune 500 firm with 43,000 employees and annual sales over $14 billion. Textron received over $775 million in federal small business contracts in a single year.

TARP has failed, national unemployment is over 10 percent and no journalist has ever asked President Obama why his administration continues to give billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.

The Small Business Act requires a minimum of 23 percent of the total value of all federal prime contracts be awarded to small businesses. According to Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Karen Mills, roughly $150 billion a year in federal contracts should be awarded to small businesses. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/30/business/smallbusiness/30mills.html?_r=2

According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses are responsible for over 97 percent of all net new jobs in America. A recent report from the Kauffman Foundation found that since 1980 nearly all net new jobs in America have come from companies that are less than five-years-old.

The 23 percent federal small business contracting goal represents the single largest federal program ever established to create jobs and boost America's middle class economy.

Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms and thousands of the largest companies around the world.

In Report 5-15, the SBA Office of Inspector General (IG) referred to the problem 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 the last five consecutive years, the SBA IG has reported the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as the #1 management challenge facing the agency.

In February of 2008, President Obama recognized the magnitude of this problem by stating, "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, President Obama has refused to adopt any policy or legislation to honor that campaign promise; as a result the rampant abuses have been allowed to continue. No journalist has ever asked President Obama why he refused to honor that campaign promise.

America is in the midst of its worst economic disaster in 80-years. Small businesses are responsible for virtually 100 percent of all net new jobs and President Obama is allowing the vast majority of federal small business contracts, which by law should be going to middle class firms, to be diverted to corporate giants around the world.

No program proposed by President Obama or Congress would direct more money to the middle class or create as many new jobs as simply ending the diversion of billions of dollars a year in federal small business contracts to corporate giants.

Over the last year, President Obama has continued to read well-written speeches about the importance of small businesses, his focus on jobs and the economy.  While the words are fresh on his tongue, President Obama hypocritically presides over the blatant corruption of the single largest federal program ever enacted to direct federal infrastructure spending to the middle class and create jobs.  Not one journalist has ever asked President Obama or any member of his administration why these abuses have been allowed to continue.

Obama Small Business Plan Criticized for Hypocrisy

by | Feb 2, 2010 | Press Release

Press Release

Obama Small Business Plan Criticized for Hypocrisy

February 2, 2010

The American Small Business League (ASBL) criticizes President Barack Obama’s latest
Plan to stimulate small businesses and the middle class economy for being hypocritical. Following last week’s State of the Union address, President Obama proposed a series of initiatives for small businesses including a $5,000 per new employee tax credit, and the establishment of a $30 billion small-business lending fund created from leftover TARP money. While the President Obama’s recent rhetoric has been focused on small businesses and job creation, over its first year his administration has allowed the diversion of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms to continue. As a result thousands of businesses have failed and countless jobs have been lost. (https://www.asbl.com/documents/20090825TopSmallBusinessContractors2008.pdf)
 
The Small Business Act directs that the federal government awards small businesses, “not less than 23 percent of the total value of all prime contract awards for each fiscal year.” Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found that the federal government is not hitting that goal, and that a majority of federal small business contracts have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms. (http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/fedgovernment/sba/sbact.html)
 
In Report 5-15, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General
referred to the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants as, “One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration (SBA) and the entire Federal Government today.”(https://www.asbl.com/documents/05-15.pdf) In October of 2009, the SBA IG referenced this issue as the #1 management challenge facing the agency for the fifth consecutive year. (http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/oig_reports_tmc_fy10.pdf)
 
In February of 2008, President Obama recognized the magnitude of the problem when he stated, “It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants.” Two years later, the latest government data clearly shows the Obama Administration is continuing to award billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to large businesses.
 
The American Small Business League believes if President Obama really wanted to create jobs he would do the following:
 
1. Issue an executive order to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants or pass H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting. https://www.asbl.com/documents/hr2568.pdf 
2. Institute the 5 percent set-aside goal for women-owned firms.
3. Restore the SBA’s budget and staffing, and open all of the small business offices closed during the Bush Administration.
4. End the comprehensive test program, which allows government prime contractors to circumvent their small business contracting goals. https://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1000
 
 
 
 
 

A Letter to President Obama From an American With Common Sense

by | Jan 28, 2010 | Press Release

Press Release

A Letter to President Obama From an American With Common Sense

January 28, 2010

Petaluma, Calif. - The following is a letter to President Barack Obama from American Small Business League President Lloyd Chapman:

I just finished watching your State of the Union address. 

You said something that really caught my attention. You said, "let's try common sense." I have some common sense suggestions for you.  Creating jobs and trying to boost our nation's struggling economy is obviously the number one issue all Americans want you to address. 

Based on the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, small business are responsible for virtually 100 percent of net new jobs in America.  So far your administration has allocated less than 3 percent of stimulus funds directly to small businesses. Wouldn't it make sense to shift more money to small businesses?   

Current federal law requires that a minimum of 23 percent of the total value of all federal contracts and subcontracts be awarded to small businesses. (http://www.smallbusinessnotes.com/fedgovernment/sba/sbact.html) That certainly makes sense. What better way to invest hard earned taxpayer dollars than to reinvest those funds with the small businesses where most taxpayer's work and nearly all net new job are created?

Unfortunately, since 2003 over a dozen federal investigations have reported that billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms. Based on data from the investigations it appears that between $75 and $120 billion a year in federal small business contracts are diverted to large businesses. (https://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html)

In 2005, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (IG) referred to this problem as, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today." Recently, for the fifth consecutive year, the SBA IG reported the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants as the number one management challenge facing the agency. (https://www.asbl.com/documents/05-15.pdf; http://www.sba.gov/idc/groups/public/documents/sba_homepage/oig_reports_tmc_fy10.pdf)  

According to the most recent data released by your administration firms counted as small businesses included: Xerox, Bechtel, 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/documents/20090825TopSmallBusinessContractors2008.pdf)

You seemed to recognize the magnitude of this problem during your campaign when you released the statement, "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)

It is now time to honor that campaign promise. You could issue an executive order directing the SBA and every federal agency to immediately halt the practice of diverting federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and other large businesses.

You could also solve this problem by passing a bill I wrote titled, H.R. 2568, the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act. To date, H.R. 2568 has 20 co-sponsors. (http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:h2568ih.txt.pdf)

Redirecting $75 to $120 billion a year in current federal infrastructure spending back to the small business that create 100 percent of net new jobs would clearly slash unemployment. It would also put more money into the middle class economy than anything you or Congress have proposed so far.

Most importantly, it is what you said you would do. Now that's common sense.

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Obama's Tiny Jobs Ideas for Main Street, A Big Spending Freeze for Wall Street

by | Jan 28, 2010 | ASBL News

News

Obama's Tiny Jobs Ideas for Main Street, A Big Spending Freeze for Wall Street

By Robert Reich
Huffington Post
January 28, 2010

President Obama today offered a set of proposals for helping America's troubled middle class. All are sensible and worthwhile. But none will bring jobs back. And Americans could be forgiven for wondering how the President plans to enact any of these ideas anyway, when he can no longer muster 60 votes in the Senate.

The bigger news is Obama is planning a three-year budget freeze on a big chunk of discretionary spending. Wall Street is delighted. But it means Main Street is in worse trouble than ever.

A pending freeze will make it even harder to get jobs back because government is the last spender around. Consumers have pulled back, investors won't do much until they know consumers are out there, and exports are miniscule.

In December 1994, Bill Clinton proposed a so-called "middle class bill of rights" including more tax credits for families with children, expanded retirement accounts, and tax-deductible college tuition. Clinton had lost his battle for health care reform. Even worse, by that time the Dems had lost the House and Senate. Washington was riding a huge anti-incumbent wave. Right-wing populists were the ascendancy, with Newt Gingrich and Fox News leading the charge. Bill Clinton thought it desperately important to assure Americans he was on their side.

Two months later, Clinton summoned Dick Morris to the White House to figure out how Clinton could move to the right and better position himself for reelection. The answer: Balance the budget.

But in 1994, Clinton's inconsistencies didn't much matter. The U.S. economy was coming out of a recession. It was of no consequence that Clinton's jobs proposals were small or that he moved to the right and whacked the budget, because within a year the great American jobs machine was blasting away and the middle class felt a lot better. Dick Morris was not responsible for Clinton's reelection. Nor was Clinton's move to the right. What reelected Bill Clinton in 1996 was a vigorous jobs recovery that was on the way to happening anyway.

Today, though, there's no sign on the horizon of a vigorous recovery. Jobs may be coming back a bit in the next months but the country has lost so many (not to mention all those who have entered the workforce over the last two years and still can't land a job) that it will be many years before the middle class can relax. Furthermore, this recession isn't like other recessions in recent memory. It has more to do with problems deep in the structure of the American economy than with the ups and downs of the business cycle.

Like Clinton's, Obama's package of middle class benefits is small potatoes. They're worthwhile but they pale relative to the size and scale of the challenge America's middle class is now facing. Obama can no longer afford to come up with lists of nice things to do. At the least, he's got to do two very big and important things: (1) Enact a second stimulus. It should mainly focus on bailing out state and local governments that are now cutting services and raising taxes, and squeezing the middle class. This would be the best way to reinvigorate the economy quickly. (2) Help distressed homeowners by allowing them to include their mortgage debt in personal bankruptcy -- which will give them far more bargaining leverage with morgage lenders. (Wall Street hates this.)

Yet instead of moving in this direction, Obama is moving in the opposite one. His three-year freeze on a large portion of discretionary spending will make it impossible for him to do much of anything for the middle class that's important. Chalk up another win for Wall Street, another loss for Main.

Source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/obamas-tiny-jobs-ideas-fo_b_436757.html

Media Coverage of State of the Union Address Will Ignore Obama's Empty Promises to Middle Class

by | Jan 27, 2010 | Press Release

Press Release

Media Coverage of State of the Union Address Will Ignore Obama's Empty Promises to Middle Class

By Lloyd Chapman
January 27, 2010

President Obama’s State of the Union address this evening will be dissected by thousands of journalists across the nation. Panels of journalists and political pundits will convene to debate and discuss the merits of his speech. The in-depth analysis of Obama’s speech will go on for days. The Republican’s rebuttal of the speech will be aired, and then it will be analyzed ad-nauseam.
 
President Obama’s speech will no doubt contain voluminous rhetoric on his fervent support for small business, middle class, and job creation. However, there will be one aspect of President Obama’s speech that seems to be so taboo, that mainstream journalists are specifically not allowed to even mention it.
 
That would be the subject of President Obama’s consistent refusal to offer anything other than window dressing and empty promises to the American small businesses that create virtually 100 percent of all net new jobs in America. You certainly won’t hear a word about existing Obama policies that have actually hurt woman-owned firms, minority-owned firms and millions of small businesses.
 
President Obama’s speech will undoubtedly contain dozens of convincing and passionate statements on his undying support for small businesses and the middle class. Unfortunately, ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN will not mention the fact that President Obama and Congress have allocated less than 2 percent of the stimulus funds to small businesses.
 
You won’t hear Wolf Blitzer mention the fact that Obama’s Administration has diverted billions of dollars in federal small business funds to Fortune 500 firms.
 
You won’t see Diane Sawyer asking President Obama or Robert Gibbs why he has refused to honor his campaign promise when he said, “It’s 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)
 
Ann Curry will not accuse the President of hypocrisy for allowing billions of dollars in government small business contracts to be diverted to some of the largest firms in Italy, England, France and South Korea.
 
Brian Williams will not talk about the fact that the first African American President and Attorney General are allowing all federal contracting programs for minorities to be dismantled.
 
Katie Couric will not mention the fact that President Obama has refused to honor his campaign promise to implement the nine-year-old law establishing a 5 percent federal contracting goal for women-owned businesses.
 
Small businesses are the engine of this nation’s economy. It is time for the mainstream media to quit ignoring the rampant and documentable abuse in federal programs designed to assist the 27 million small businesses where most Americans are employed.
 
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