FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Petaluma, Calif. - In his latest speech on the economy, President-elect Barack Obama has once again failed to make even a single mention of America's small businesses, which create nearly 80 percent of net new jobs, and employ 50.4 percent of private sector workers.
With regards to the economy, Obama held true to his campaign pattern of significantly downplaying the role small businesses play in driving our national economy. Even one of his top economic advisors, Dr. Laura Tyson acknowledged that the best way to simulate the economy is to direct federal infrastructure funds to small businesses. Tyson is the former Chair of the U.S. President's Council of Economic
Advisers during the Clinton Administration and is currently an economic adviser to President-elect Obama.
On February 26, 2008, President-elect Obama stated, "Over half of all Americans work for a small business. 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." (http://www.barackobama.com/2008/02/26/the_american_small_business_le.php)
The statement was made in response to a series of more than 15 federal investigations, which have found fraud, abuse, loopholes and a blatant lack of oversight in federal small business contracting programs; and have uncovered the diversion of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms. (http://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html)
Within days of making the statement Obama began to distance himself from it. During the final months of the campaign Obama failed to mention small business issues in campaign speeches, modified his statement regarding the diversion of small business contracts to large corporations on his campaign website, and gave small business issues virtually no priority in his campaign agenda.
When President-elect Obama's Transition Team website, www.change.gov was launched, any mention of Obama's statement to stop the flow of federal small business contracts to large corporations had been removed.
Small business advocates are concerned that President-elect Obama may enact policy and legislation that could be harmful to the nation's nearly 27 million small businesses. Additionally, advocates point to the fact that the Obama-Biden Transition Agenda which is housed on change.gov, contains no new provisions that would significantly impact our nation's small business community.
"I am extremely concerned that President-elect Obama doesn't seem to understand that most Americans work for companies with less than 100 employees and that these are the companies that are going to lead our country out of the recession and create a vast majority of all new jobs," President of the American Small Business League Lloyd Chapman said. "So far, he has refused to offer even the most basic proposal to redirect federal infrastructure funds to these companies. It appears that he has no intention of stopping the flow of up to $100 billion in government small business contracts to large corporations. We are concerned that during his first days in office he may try to create loopholes for venture capitalists that will divert even more federal funds away from small businesses. It is going to take a lot more than tax cuts to stimulate this economy. President-elect Obama keeps talking about how important it is that we act immediately, and I couldn't agree more. We would like to see him propose policies next week that would, as he promised on February 26, 2008, stop the flow of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."
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Thursday, January 8, 2009
Obama Ignores Economic Experts On Stimulus Plan
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Petaluma, Calif. - President-elect Barack Obama and the new 111th Congress will soon be rolling-out an economic stimulus plan. The stimulus package will no doubt cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, and there is no guarantee it will achieve it's goal of rescuing most Americans from the failing economy.
One free, easy and guaranteed method to stimulate the U.S. economy is to channel federal infrastructure funds to our nation's nearly 27 million small businesses. U.S. Census Bureau statistics show 98 percent of all U.S. firms have less than 100 employees. These firms create over 85 percent of all new jobs and employ over 56 percent of all private sector workers.
So far President-elect Obama has completely ignored this simple, quick and cost effective method of stimulating the national economy.
In a recent appearance on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, two of America's top economic experts, Laura Tyson and Carly Fiorina agreed that directing federal infrastructure funds to small businesses was a foolproof and easy way to create millions of jobs and immediately boost the failing economy. Tyson is the former Chair of the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration and is currently an economic adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. Fiorina is the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and McCain campaign economic advisor.
This method of stimulating the nation's failing economy would be virtually free to taxpayers and would have an immediate positive effect on the economy. It could be implemented immediately, because it would be based on existing federal programs designed to direct federal funds to small businesses. The Small Business Reauthorization Act of 1997 stipulates that a minimum of 23 percent of all federal prime and sub-contracts be awarded to small businesses.
Since 2002, over a dozen federal investigations have found fraud, abuse, loopholes, and a blatant lack of oversight by federal officials, which have allowed billions of dollars in federal contracts earmarked for small businesses to wind-up in the hands of Fortune 500 firms. Additionally, ABC, CBS and CNN, along with most of the nation's largest newspapers have reported the dramatic abuses in these programs.
It has been estimated that as much as $100 billion a year in federal small business contracts are diverted to Fortune 500 firms and other large businesses. If these funds were redirected to the middle class economy as Congress originally intended with the passage of the Small Business Act of 1953, there would be a significant, undeniable and immediate impact on the national economy.
If President-elect Obama is searching for the most cost effective and immediate way to stimulate America's faltering economy, legislation to direct federal infrastructure funds to America's small businesses should be implemented as soon as possible.
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Petaluma, Calif. - President-elect Barack Obama and the new 111th Congress will soon be rolling-out an economic stimulus plan. The stimulus package will no doubt cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, and there is no guarantee it will achieve it's goal of rescuing most Americans from the failing economy.
One free, easy and guaranteed method to stimulate the U.S. economy is to channel federal infrastructure funds to our nation's nearly 27 million small businesses. U.S. Census Bureau statistics show 98 percent of all U.S. firms have less than 100 employees. These firms create over 85 percent of all new jobs and employ over 56 percent of all private sector workers.
So far President-elect Obama has completely ignored this simple, quick and cost effective method of stimulating the national economy.
In a recent appearance on CNN's Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer, two of America's top economic experts, Laura Tyson and Carly Fiorina agreed that directing federal infrastructure funds to small businesses was a foolproof and easy way to create millions of jobs and immediately boost the failing economy. Tyson is the former Chair of the U.S. President's Council of Economic Advisers during the Clinton Administration and is currently an economic adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. Fiorina is the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and McCain campaign economic advisor.
This method of stimulating the nation's failing economy would be virtually free to taxpayers and would have an immediate positive effect on the economy. It could be implemented immediately, because it would be based on existing federal programs designed to direct federal funds to small businesses. The Small Business Reauthorization Act of 1997 stipulates that a minimum of 23 percent of all federal prime and sub-contracts be awarded to small businesses.
Since 2002, over a dozen federal investigations have found fraud, abuse, loopholes, and a blatant lack of oversight by federal officials, which have allowed billions of dollars in federal contracts earmarked for small businesses to wind-up in the hands of Fortune 500 firms. Additionally, ABC, CBS and CNN, along with most of the nation's largest newspapers have reported the dramatic abuses in these programs.
It has been estimated that as much as $100 billion a year in federal small business contracts are diverted to Fortune 500 firms and other large businesses. If these funds were redirected to the middle class economy as Congress originally intended with the passage of the Small Business Act of 1953, there would be a significant, undeniable and immediate impact on the national economy.
If President-elect Obama is searching for the most cost effective and immediate way to stimulate America's faltering economy, legislation to direct federal infrastructure funds to America's small businesses should be implemented as soon as possible.
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Monday, January 5, 2009
Lloyd Chapman: Stop Fraud in Small Business Contracting Programs
We posted the following playlist to You Tube today, check it out...
Obama Stimulus Bill May Include Loopholes For Venture Capitalists
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 5, 2008
Petaluma, Calif. - Congress will begin work this week on President-elect Barack Obama's new economic stimulus plan. The American Small Business League (ASBL) is predicting President-elect Obama's stimulus plan may contain provisions that will allow wealthy venture capitalists to receive billions of dollars in federal contracts earmarked for small businesses.
Under the guise of "increasing access to capital for small businesses," the Obama stimulus plan may change the long-standing federal definition of a small business as being "independently owned," to include firms that are controlled by some of the nation's wealthiest investors.
Most economists agree the best way to create jobs and stimulate the nation's failing economy is to direct federal infrastructure funds to the 26 million small businesses that create over 85 percent of new jobs and employ over 55 percent of all Americans.
The new Obama loophole in federal contracting law would do just the opposite by forcing legitimate small businesses to compete head-to-head with firms controlled by wealthy investors and even some of the largest venture capital firms in the United States.
Thousands of legitimate small businesses would be negatively impacted. Billions of dollars in federal small business contracts would be diverted from middle class firms and into the hands of a very small number of firms controlled by wealthy venture capitalists.
The Obama plan may even include a provision that would exempt the venture capital owned firms from capital gains tax.
Similar proposals in the past were pushed by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and opposed by the Small Business Administration, the ASBL, the U.S Chamber of Commerce, the Bush White House and virtually every major small business group in the country.
The NVCA and its members donated heavily to the Obama campaign and have donated millions more to dozens of key democratic members in Congress such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator John Kerry, Senator Joseph Lieberman and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez. The majority of the members of the House Small Business Committee and nearly all of the members of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship received significant contributions from the NVCA and its members.
In the past, the NVCA has used the term "increasing access to capital for small businesses," to disguise legislation and policy changes that would allow wealthy investors to receive billions of dollars in federal contracts earmarked for legitimate small businesses.
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January 5, 2008
Petaluma, Calif. - Congress will begin work this week on President-elect Barack Obama's new economic stimulus plan. The American Small Business League (ASBL) is predicting President-elect Obama's stimulus plan may contain provisions that will allow wealthy venture capitalists to receive billions of dollars in federal contracts earmarked for small businesses.
Under the guise of "increasing access to capital for small businesses," the Obama stimulus plan may change the long-standing federal definition of a small business as being "independently owned," to include firms that are controlled by some of the nation's wealthiest investors.
Most economists agree the best way to create jobs and stimulate the nation's failing economy is to direct federal infrastructure funds to the 26 million small businesses that create over 85 percent of new jobs and employ over 55 percent of all Americans.
The new Obama loophole in federal contracting law would do just the opposite by forcing legitimate small businesses to compete head-to-head with firms controlled by wealthy investors and even some of the largest venture capital firms in the United States.
Thousands of legitimate small businesses would be negatively impacted. Billions of dollars in federal small business contracts would be diverted from middle class firms and into the hands of a very small number of firms controlled by wealthy venture capitalists.
The Obama plan may even include a provision that would exempt the venture capital owned firms from capital gains tax.
Similar proposals in the past were pushed by the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) and opposed by the Small Business Administration, the ASBL, the U.S Chamber of Commerce, the Bush White House and virtually every major small business group in the country.
The NVCA and its members donated heavily to the Obama campaign and have donated millions more to dozens of key democratic members in Congress such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator John Kerry, Senator Joseph Lieberman and Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez. The majority of the members of the House Small Business Committee and nearly all of the members of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship received significant contributions from the NVCA and its members.
In the past, the NVCA has used the term "increasing access to capital for small businesses," to disguise legislation and policy changes that would allow wealthy investors to receive billions of dollars in federal contracts earmarked for legitimate small businesses.
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