All talk; little action.

That's the American Small Business League's verdict following President Barack Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday.

According to a business league press release, Obama mentioned small businesses five times and jobs more than 30 times.

Yet, the league said, the Obama administration has consistently refused to honor its small business campaign promises, including pledges to:

- Stop the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants.

- Restore the Small Business Administration's budget and staffing to pre-Bush administration levels. To date, the SBA's budget remains below Clinton- and Reagan- era levels, the business league reported.

- Restore cabinet level status for the administrator of the SBA. The business league said the SBA chief was removed from the Cabinet during George W. Bush's tenure.

"Small businesses create a vast majority of net new jobs, yet President Obama has given them virtually none of the stimulus money, while giving nearly all of the small business contracting dollars to Fortune 500 firms," said Lloyd Chapman, business league president.

"Until that ends, unemployment is not going to go down and the economy is not going to recover," Chapman added.

The business league endorsed Obama for president, but clearly the honeymoon is long over.

What do you think? If you own or manage a small business, please share with readers of this column how the president could best help your enterprise to succeed.

Kindly drop me a note at lruane@news-press.com.

Source: http://www.news-press.com/article/20110130/COLUMNISTS14/101300349/1014/business/Small-business-forum-at-FGCU

Arizona small business leaders praise President Barack Obama's focus on improving technologies, such as clean energy, as part of his economic plan.

While President Barack Obama's State of the Union address on Tuesday elicited mixed responses from the business community, some of his proposals made small business news for being right on target.

To get a better handle on how small businesses were feeling after the speech, the Arizona Republic interviewed several local business leaders and found that the president's call for clean energy, infrastructure and wireless technology was seen as key to moving the U.S. economy forward.

"I think his comments about clean energy being this generation's Sputnik is right on. There are not a lot of reasons for us to be importing 70 percent of our petroleum from regions in the world that aren't very pro-democracy and pro-America," said Barry Broome, president and CEO of the Greater Phoenix Economic Council.

However, some owners remained skeptical. Joe Higgens, owner of Tucson-based Sports Buzz Haircuts, said that the stimulus plan was supposed to support these initiatives and that clearly has not happened.

Higgins would likely agree with the American Small Business League, which in a statement criticized Obama for using the "same tired rhetoric."

Source: http://www.gaebler.com/News/Small-Business-Technology/Arizona-business-leaders-praise-President%27s-focus-on-technology-and-innovation-800370156.htm

Although the State of the Union address given by President Obama was praised by both the AFL-CIO and the U S Chamber of Commerce, small business organizations had mixed feelings; including some very negative comments.

Brett Palmer, President of The National Association of Small Business Investment Companies (NASBIC), said that "aside from being open to removing a major burden he signed into law, (health-care 1099 provision) there was little tangible to assess."

"Center Rock, the small business Obama lauded for playing such a critical role in the Chilean miner rescue, received its capital through a Small Business Investment Company (SBIC). It is creating self sustaining private sector jobs across the country. That wasn't mentioned by the President."

Said Dan Danner, President and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business, (NFIB) “While there were a few hopeful moments for small-business owners in the president’s speech last night, overall our impression is that, when the Obama administration talks about ‘business’ they really mean big business. Increasing trade and cutting corporate taxes are big-business issues. Very few small firms engage in international trade or pay corporate taxes."

“We do appreciate the president’s mention of repeal the health-care law’s 1099 provision. It is something that is a terrible burden on small firms and never should have been in the law to begin with. With no mention of the job-creating power of small businesses, and no proposals to unleash their enormous potential, the small-business community is left with the feeling that the president doesn’t ‘get’ small business. We’d be happy to help him get to know us better.”

The NSBA did have lukewarm praise for the speech. “Innovation is what we do. Small firms produce five times as many patents per revenue dollar as large companies and 20 times as many as universities,” stated Larry Nannis, National Small Business Association chair and shareholder at Levine, Katz, Nannis + Solomon, P.C.. “We applaud the president’s commitment to innovation and look forward to joint efforts ensuring the continued success of programs such as the Small Business Innovation Research program.”

The harshest overview came from Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League. "President Obama is just like an actor, playing a role, and reading his lines," he said. "When people watch President Obama on television they need to realize this is a man that has broken virtually every campaign promise he has ever made to small businesses."

"In February of 2008, President Obama promised to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants, yet today this abuse continues to pull billions of dollars a month out of the middle class economy. This is a President that has allowed Wall St. to continue to make record profits; while our homes are worth less and less, unemployment continues to go up, and the middle class continues to suffer. Political rhetoric without action is meaningless."

Source: http://bizbox.slate.com/blog/2011/01/biz_groups_give_president_the.php

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(Photo: REUTERS)

American Small Business League said President Obama relied on the same tired rhetoric, while continuing to ignore billions of dollars in job killing abuse in small business contracting programs.

Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/105160/20110126/obama-barack-obama-state-of-the-union-address-congress-republicans-americans-jobs-small-businesses-a.htm