Apple Computer and Federal Express are just two examples of thousands of firms that got their start with the help of the Small Business Administration (SBA).

President Obama has announced his intention to resurrect Ronald Reagan's plan to permanently close the SBA by combining it with the Department of Commerce.

When Ronald Reagan caved into pressure from the nation's largest defense contractors and agreed to try and close the SBA, the mainstream media and Democrats in Congress mounted a formidable opposition. Small business advocates like Senators Carl Levin, James Sasser and Lowell Weicker defeated Reagan's plan to close the SBA and dismantle all federal small business programs.

Journalists like Peter Jennings, Tom Brokaw, Ann Compton and Irving R. Levine all came to the aid of American small businesses.

As a result, during the last 30 years, millions of small businesses were able to get their start, compete for federal contracts, receive loans, flourish and create millions of net new jobs in America.

According to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses are responsible for over 90 percent of net new jobs in America, over 50 percent of the private sector workforce, over 50 percent of the GDP and over 90 percent of U.S. exporters. A study by the Kauffman Foundation found 100 percent of all net new jobs in America, since 1980, have been created by small businesses.

Reagan was honest and blunt that he wanted to permanently "close the SBA" by combining it with the Department of Commerce. President Obama has learned from Reagan's failed attempt to "close the SBA" so he has renamed his SBA closure plan, "streamlining government" and "combining agencies."

So far, it has been extremely successful in avoiding media attention and not one journalist in America has reported Obama's plan to close the SBA is identical in every way to Ronald Reagan's plan to close the SBA.

Without the political opposition and accurate media coverage Reagan faced, President Obama will likely be successful in closing the SBA and bringing an end to the only agency in American history to assist the 28 million small businesses that create up to 100 percent of the nation's net new jobs.

Without coverage by the mainstream media, by the time most Americans find out the SBA has been shuttered and all federal small business programs are to be dismantled, it will be too late.

If the SBA is closed, millions of future companies like Apple and Federal Express will never exist. Their positive impact on our economy and our society will never be known. The devastating negative impact of the SBA's closure on our nation's economy will be felt for generations.

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