The Small business Administration is in its last days, says the president of the American Small Business League, a Petaluma-based organization that has been critical of the SBA’s management.

Lloyd Chapman says while the SBA was under fire during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, the Barack Obama administration has it in its sights and is likely to merge it into the Commerce Department.

“Obama seems to be worse,” says Mr. Chapman, pointing to promises of support for small business but lack of action. “When it comes to delivering for small businesses and banks, he’s a no-show.”

In this video, Mr. Chapman elaborates:

Mr. Chapman says massive federal spending, which is meant for small business, is instead flowing to some of the world’s largest corporations. “The biggest is Textron, which is a Fortune 500 defense contractor with 43,000 employees and $25 billion sales,” Mr. Chapman says of a recent release of a list of federal contracts with “small” businesses.

The ASBL head says Mr. Obama’s intentions against small business are also seen in his appointment of a former venture capitalist, Karen Mills, to head the SBA.

Earlier this month Mr. Obama proposed increasing the maximum size of existing SBA loans to $5 million and giving smaller banks better access to money from the Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program to encourage more lending to small business. The nation’s smaller banks – those with less than $1 billion in assets -- could borrow from the program at a lower interest rate if they could show how that would increase their lending to small businesses.

"There’s no question that the steps we’ve taken have improved the overall climate for small business across the country,” Mr. Obama said. “This administration is going to stand behind small businesses. You are our highest priority because we are confident that when you are succeeding, America succeeds."

(Editor’s note: Mr. Chapman responded to CVBT questions in a live interview that was recorded by ASBL, which furnished CVBT the unedited recording.)

Source:  http://www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/stories/001/?ID=13475