Petaluma, Calif. - The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 513 points Thursday, a 4.3 percent drop and the worst single day drop since October 22, 2008. The S&P 500 and NASDAQ dropped 4.8 and 5.1 percent respectively.

The stock market’s drastic plunge indicates a complete lack of investor confidence, due in large part to uncertainty surrounding the debt ceiling compromise and painfully low unemployment. The Obama Administration has offered no plan for reducing the jobs deficit.

America’s chief job creators continue to be ignored in Washington’s ongoing debate on spurring job growth. According to the US Census Bureau small businesses create 90 percent of net new jobs in America. (http://archive.sba.gov/advo/research/rs359.pdf)

Yet these chief job creators are losing millions of dollars daily in federal contracts that are illegally diverted to mega-corporations like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, AT&T, Motorola, Xerox, Northrop Grumman and General Electric.

Large corporations like these have created virtually no net new jobs in three decades. (http://www.kauffman.org/research-and-policy/where-will-the-jobs-come-from.aspx)

In fiscal year (FY) 2010, 61 of the top 100 federal small business contractors were large companies. These large firms received 62.5 percent of the contracting dollars awarded to the top 100, or $8.8 billion.  (https://www.asbl.com/documents/asbl_2010_dataanalysis.pdf) 

In Report 5-15, the Small Business Administration’s Office of Inspector General (SBA IG) referred to the issue as, “One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today.” The SBA IG has named the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants as the number one challenge facing the agency for six consecutive years. (https://www.asbl.com/documents/05-15.pdf) 

The President himself acknowledged the plight of small businesses on the 2008 campaign trail stating, “Small businesses are the backbone of our nation’s economy and we must protect this great resource. It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants.”  (https://www.asbl.com/documents/20081007_Obama_Promise_Website.pdf)

To date no legislative action has been taken to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants.

ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said of the continued economic failures, “I would like people in the media and around the country to remember one thing when President Obama is on television talking about his efforts to create jobs. Every day the Obama Administration diverts millions of dollars in federal small business contracts away from small businesses, where all net new jobs are created, into the hands of large corporations, which have not created one net new job in three decades.”