I endorsed you during the primary; you even put my endorsement on the front page of your campaign website. I donated thousands of dollars to your campaign, and I got up at 4:30 a.m. day-after-day doing radio shows coast-to-coast campaigning for you on both progressive and conservative radio shows.
Like millions of Americans, I was so thrilled at what I thought was the first President in my lifetime that would truly represent all of the American people.
I am a passionate and successful advocate for small businesses. I have been suing the federal government and winning lawsuits on behalf of small business for twenty years. I fight the government year-after-year to stop what 99 percent of all Americans would certainly agree is a deplorable and unbelievably damaging government policy of giving small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.
In Report 5-15, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General referred to the diversion of government small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms 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)
On February 22, 2008, you responded to a series of federal investigations on the topic 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)
The next thing I knew, you changed your campaign website to make it look like you never made that statement. What happened? (http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/sbhome/)
This is not gun control, gay marriage, abortion or Middle East policy. It's FORTUNE 500 FIRMS GETTING BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN FEDERAL SMALL BUSINESS CONTRACTS.
Now, it's your 100th day in office. You have come out with numerous small business rescue plans and stimulus plans, and yet today small businesses in all 50 states are still having to compete with "corporate giants" for even the most minuscule government small business contracts for goods and services.
I know you're busy, but you might want to take a look at the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data. Firms with less than 100 employees create over 97 percent of all new jobs in America, and employ over 50.2 percent of our nation's private sector workforce.
Aren't you the guy that is supposed to create millions of new jobs in America? How do you expect to do that if you won't even address the rampant fraud and abuse in existing federal economic stimulus programs for the firms that create 97 percent of ALL NEW JOBS. That's right, 97 percent.
Barack, listen to me, if you don't get this economy turned around you're not going to get re-elected.
The way I see it, you can take care of this the easy way or the hard way. You can be a big hero to the middle class, and do something that will really stimulate the economy. If you continue to ignore the issue until the next major federal investigation, or the next major media story, it's going to be tough to explain why Fortune 500 firms are getting federal small business contracts during a recession, or worse, a depression.
That could really put a major kink in your "change we can believe in" and "an end to business as usual in Washington" mantra.
Since 2003, there have been over 15 federal investigations into this issue and hundreds of stories in the mainstream media. I can promise you this is not going to stop. More embarrassing investigations and stories are a certainty. (http://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html)
I can also promise you I'm not going away. You told us to hold you accountable, and I promise you that is just what I am going to do. You know how much trouble I can cause with my barrage of freedom of information requests and my unrelenting legal campaign. Entrepreneur magazine said I might be a "modern-day Cesar Chavez" for small business. That should concern you; we all know how much trouble he caused for the "corporate giants."
Do the right thing Barack; do something that you can look back on twenty years from now and be proud of. Do what you said you would do. After all, you were absolutely right during the campaign when you said, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."
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