Obama State of the Union Address Will be More Rhetoric and No Substance for The Middle Class

Press Release

Obama State of the Union Address Will be More Rhetoric and No Substance for The Middle Class

By Lloyd Chapman - President
January 27, 2010

I can already hear the empty pandering to the middle class in President Obama's State of the Union speech. He will be reading one of the most well written speeches of his presidency since he and his handlers realize their reign in Washington could be on the ropes.

President Obama has a documentable track record of broken campaign promises and policies that have virtually ignored the middle class.

In my perfect world, every network carrying President Obama's State of the Union address would be required to run a scrolling banner of my up to the minute commentary on the bottom of the screen.

When President Obama starts to roll out his impassioned B.S. about his concern for small businesses and the middle class, I could throw-up some of the actual data on his policies to date.

As people watch President Obama on the screen, I want them to see that small businesses in the middle class are responsible for over 97 percent of all net new jobs in America. To date, President Obama and the democratically controlled Congress have allocated approximately 2 percent of the stimulus funds to small businesses.

When he starts to talk about small businesses, I would run some of the latest government data that shows every day of his administration, hundreds of millions in federal contracts that by law are earmarked for small business have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms.

I would love to run the names across the bottom of the screen as he spoke of some of the firms the Obama Administration is currently giving small business contracts. I wonder how President Obama's most ardent supporters would feel when they saw billions of dollars in federal small business contracts going to Bechtel, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and Northrop Grumman.

The largest recipient in the latest government small business data was Textron, a Fortune 500 corporation with 43,000 employees, and $14 billion in annual revenue. That's a small business right? Textron received nearly $780 million in federal small business contracts in a single year.

I wonder what affect it would have on his poll numbers if every American knew the Obama Administration was giving U.S. government small business funds to some of the largest corporations in England, France, Italy and even South Korea.

After all the shocking statistics ran, I would run a statement President Obama released almost two years ago in February of 2008, "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)

I think most people would be much more informed if they skipped President Obama's State of the Union address and spent that time looking up some of the stories on what he has actually done instead. Google "Lloyd Chapman Barack Obama small business" [Do not search with the words in quotes] and see what you find.

There is a staggering abyss between what Obama says and what Obama does.

One of the best examples is President Obama's campaign promise to enact a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry. On every campaign stop for two years, President Obama promised to enact a windfall profits tax on oil companies. If you want to find out how much you can trust what Barack Obama says, try and find his excuse for completely dropping the windfall profits tax.

So when you watch the State of the Union address or any Obama speech, realize that the man gives $2 billion a week in federal small business funds to some of the largest companies in the world.  Realize that his two top campaign contributors, Goldman Sachs and J.P. Morgan Chase are making record profits in the middle of the worst economic meltdown in 80 years, while bankruptcies for small businesses are up 44 percent over last year.

People need to begin to realize that President Obama should have received an Oscar for best actor instead of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Wednesday night he will read his lines with passion and conviction, but Thursday morning his policies will continue to ignore the middle class and the small businesses where most Americans work and that create over 97 percent of all net new jobs.

The only change the middle class going to get from President Obama will be the pocket change that's left in their bank accounts at the end of the month.

Obama Administration Obscures Federal Contracting Data

Press Release

Obama Administration Obscures Federal Contracting Data

January 25, 2010

Petaluma, Calif. - The Obama Administration has removed a critical field from the Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation (FPDS - NG) that has been used by federal contractors to indicate their status as a small or large business. Obama officials at the General Services Administration (GSA) removed the "small business flag" on all future and historical data.

Over a dozen federal investigations and numerous investigative stories by organizations such as ABC, CBS and CNN have used the small business flag to uncover billions of dollars in federal small business contracts that were fraudulently diverted to large businesses. (Report 5-15, https://www.asbl.com/documents/05-15.pdf; ABC, https://www.asbl.com/abc_evening_news.wmv; CBS, https://www.asbl.com/cbs.wmv; CNN, https://www.asbl.com/showmedia.php?id=1170)  

The removal of the "small business flag" will make it difficult if not impossible for any future federal investigations to uncover large businesses that have fraudulently claimed to be small businesses prior to 2009.

In addition to removing the small business flag, the GSA has forced all firms that obtain federal contracting data from the GSA for dissemination to the public, to sign an agreement, which severely restricts their release of the data. The GSA's "GETLIST RULES OF BEHAVIOR" warns, "parties failing to sign the agreement and comply with the terms will be denied access to this service."(http://www.fpds-ng.com/downloads/FPDS-NG%20getList%20Rules%20of%20Behavior.pdf)

In one example, the agreement stipulates a firm would be in violation of the agreement if they create a report that "show[s] socio-economic information but which contains none of the requisite SBA rules of exclusion."

The American Small Business League (ASBL) has challenged the SBA's "rules of exclusion" since there is no basis in the law for the practice. The Small Business Act stipulates a minimum of 23 percent of the "total value of all prime contract awards for each fiscal year" shall be awarded to small businesses. (http://www.sba.gov/regulations/sbaact/sbaact.html) The ASBL believes the SBA has arbitrarily created the "rules of exclusion" to artificially inflate the percentage of federal contracts awarded to small businesses by removing billions of dollars in major prime contracts from their calculations.

The GSA's "GETLIST RULES OF BEHAVIOR" would prevent firms from releasing accurate data on the actual percentage of all federal contracts awarded to small businesses. In the past, information released by private firms on the percentage of all federal contracts awarded to legitimate small businesses has been significantly lower than the percentage claimed by the Small Business Administration.

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Obama Administration Diverting Federal Contracts From Small Businesses, Says ASBL

News

Obama Administration Diverting Federal Contracts From Small Businesses, Says ASBL

By Staff
Gaebler.com
January 25, 2010

General Services Administration eliminates its "small business flag" from federal contracting data.

In 2008, Barack Obama earned the American Small Business League's endorsement for pledging to, in the candidate's words, "end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." But breaking small business news feeds into growing disappointment with the Obama administration's follow-through on this pledge.

The General Services Administration has eliminated a significant aspect of its Federal Procurement Data System - Next Generation, which keeps track of federal contracts. A "small business flag," which indicated the size of contracted organizations, will not appear on future official records and has been deleted from historical data.

More than a dozen federal investigations and reports have found that the small business flag was used fraudulently, diverting billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms. Without the flag it will become significantly more difficult to monitor federal contracting data. Further, GSA has forced firms that obtain this data to sign an agreement preventing them from releasing certain facts, such as the percentage of federal contracts awarded to small businesses.

The Small Business Act stipulates that at least 23 percent of the "total value of all prime contract awards for each fiscal year" go to small businesses. "It is time for President Obama to make good on his campaign promise," says ASBL President Lloyd Chapman.

Source:  http://www.gaebler.com/News/Small-Business-Finance/Obama-administration-diverting-federal-contracts-from-small-businesses,-says-ASBL-19577026.htm

Bechtel denies complaint

News

Bechtel denies complaint

By Ed Waters Jr.
The Frederick News-Post
January 22, 2010

An organization representing small companies said Bechtel received a $128 million contract earmarked for small contractors.

Bechtel, responding to the claim by the American Small Business League, said the company did not receive any contracts improperly.

The contention is based on a contract to Bechtel Marine Propulsion Corp., formerly known as Bechtel Bettis.

The company, which develops advanced nuclear propulsion technology, received the contact properly, said Francis M. Canavan, spokesman for Bechtel.

Canavan said the problem stems from an error by Fedmine, a service that reports federal contracts.

Canavan said Fedmine had tagged the contact as a small business action.

Fedmine could not be reached for comment.

In a prepared statement, the league said the contract had been coded for small business in the "socio-economic" field in the Federal Procurement Data System -- Next Generation.

Canavan said Bechtel supports the American Small Business League in its efforts to promote small businesses.

"We believe the league's concerns are fair, but we have seen no evidence in the documents or amendments to show it was a small-business contract," Canavan said.

The federal government has a policy of setting aside 23 percent of its contracts for small businesses, Canavan said.

Source: http://www.fredericknewspost.com/sections/business/display.htm?StoryID=100363

Obama's First Year in Office Marred By Many Broken Campaign Promises

Press Release

Obama's First Year in Office Marred By Many Broken Campaign Promises

January 21, 2010

President Barack Obama campaigned on the promise of "change we can believe in" and "an end to business as usual in Washington." After just one year in office it now appears that once again the American people were swayed by a politician that said whatever it took to get elected; with no intention of honoring the campaign promises that inspired voters to back him.

There are so many broken campaign promises from President Obama, websites like Politifact.com have sprung up to try and track them all. (http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/; http://www.wnd.com/index.php?pageId=91286) Many of President Obama's broken campaign promises appear to smack of the typical, "business as usual in Washington." The corporate giants that command an army of well-paid lobbyists still seem to get what they want out of President Obama and Congress at the expense of the American people. An excellent example is the sudden disappearance of President Obama's promise to implement a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry from his agenda.

Every day for two years, President Obama promised voters that he would enact a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry if he were elected. In a statement released in June of 2008 he said, "I'll make oil companies like Exxon pay a tax on their windfall profits, and we'll use the money to help families pay for their skyrocketing energy costs and other bills." http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSWAT00963020080609

Click here to watch President Obama's campaign commercial regarding a windfall profits tax: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJPo5IGTd0A

Within 48 hours of being elected any mention of the windfall profits tax suddenly disappeared from the Obama/Biden Change.gov website. President Obama did not personally offer any explanation for the disappearance of one of his key campaign promises and to this day he has never mentioned it again. (Pre-change, https://www.asbl.com/documents/Economy_Change.pdf ; Post-change, http://change.gov/agenda/economy_agenda/)

So what happened? What could possibly prompt the newly elected President of the United States to drop one of his key campaign promises abruptly without explanation? My guess is money, and lots of it. The kind of money the oil and gas industry would gladly offer to kill a proposal that would end their ability to reap record profits for years to come at the expense of the American people.

Another example of a broken campaign promise is President Obama's February 2008 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) Since 2003, twenty-five federal investigations have found that billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts have been diverted to Fortune 500 firms and thousands of large businesses around the world. In 2005, the Small Business Administration (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." Every year for the last five years, the SBA Office of Inspector General has reported the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants as the #1 management challenge facing the SBA.

So why would President Obama break a campaign promise to simply stop the federal government from giving federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms? It's a pretty clear-cut issue. I would imagine virtually 100 percent of the American people would agree that Fortune 500 firms should not be receiving federal small business funds. Especially not now, considering the dire state of our national economy.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau small businesses are responsible for over 97 percent of all net new jobs. President Obama has promised to create millions of new jobs to stimulate the economy. Since small businesses create virtually all net new jobs in America, why would President Obama allow billions of dollars a week in federal small business contracts to be diverted to Fortune 500 firms? Well... again, one explanation might be, lots and lots of money. When you think about it, massive volumes of cash can get you whatever you want in Washington D.C.

Am I saying that Barack "Change We Can Believe In" Obama is being bribed by corporate giants to block policies that would stop massive corporate greed and abuse? Yes I am.

If anyone has a sound and rational explanation as to why President Obama is still allowing the oil and gas industry to devastate our national economy at will to reap windfall profits, I would love to hear it. You con men and liars that lobby for the American Petroleum Institute (API), don't waste your time trying to deny the fact that the oil industry reaped windfall profits. Why do you think Obama proposed the windfall profits tax in the first place?

If anyone in Obamaland would like to explain to me why President Obama is allowing billions of dollars a month in federal small business funds to be diverted away from the small businesses that create virtually 100 percent of all net new jobs in America, to Fortune 500 firms and some of the largest firms in Holland, England, France, Italy and Korea; I would especially like to hear from you.