Petaluma, Calif. - Without the support of women, minorities and small business owners across the nation, President Obama would still be Senator Obama.

After just 100 days in office, President Obama has managed to alienate a multitude of his staunchest supporters by going back on key campaign promises and ignoring some of their most important issues.

Beginning in 2003, a consistent flow of federal investigations have been released that found billions of dollars in federal small business contracts were intentionally diverted to Fortune 500 firms. Several investigations uncovered cases of blatant fraud. The Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General released Report 5-15, which referred to the rampant fraud and abuse as, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today..." (http://www.sba.gov/IG/05-15.pdf)  

During his campaign for President, Barack Obama acknowledged the magnitude of the problem and released the 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)    

To date, President Obama has consistently refused to propose any policy or legislation to address the problem. As a result, during the first 100 days of his administration, middle class firms across America have lost approximately $28.8 billion in federal small business contracts to "corporate giants." That number will top $100 billion by the end of President Obama's first year in office. 

During the campaign, President Obama promised women business owners he would fully implement the federal law establishing a 5 percent woman-owned business set-aside federal contracting goal. To date, he has failed to do so, and there is no indication he has any plans to establish the program. Woman-owned firms continue to lose billions of dollars every month in federal contracts eight years after the program was signed into law.

When Barack Obama's victory over John McCain in the Presidential election was announced, millions of African Americans were moved to tears. They cried tears of joy with the belief that decades of racial discrimination would finally be over.

Today, minority business owners watch in stunned disbelief as the first African American President and Attorney General allow the Defense Department to completely dismantle federal economic stimulus programs to direct just 5 percent of federal contracts to minority-owned firms. Thousands of minority-owned businesses around the country will be forced to close their doors.

Based on the actions of his first 100 days in office, America's first African American President may be the first President in history to dismantle federal economic stimulus programs designed to create jobs for women, minorities and thousands of other small businesses.

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