PETALUMA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The following is a statement by the American Small Business League:
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, small businesses create 90 percent of all net new jobs in America. Yet President Obama’s economic policies continue to ignore this clear avenue toward a better economy.
The Administration’s failed policies come at the expense of the middle class. During the first half of 2011, Americans have faced massive unemployment and endured dismal job growth. The number of Americans without a job has shot above 14 million, an increase of more than 500,000 since March. (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm)
Data indicates that the President and Congress are ignoring small businesses while promoting policies aimed at helping the nation’s chief job exporters, large corporations. The American Small Business League (ASBL) reports that legitimate small businesses have been left out of the federal government’s most practical economic stimulus plan, the Small Business Act, which requires that 23 percent of all prime contract dollars go to small businesses.
Since 2003, a series of federal investigations have discovered billions of dollars in small business contracts going to some of the largest corporations in the United States and Europe. For example, in fiscal year (FY) 2010, the government reported $768 million in small business contracts went to ManTech Sensor Technologies Inc. (STI), which is a subsidiary of ManTech International Corporation and has 8,000 employees and $1.8 billion in annual revenue.
In Report 5-15, the Small Business Administration 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 issue as the agency’s top management challenge for the last six consecutive years. (http://www.asbl.com/documentlibrary.html#5-15)
In 2008, the President said, “98 percent of all American companies have fewer than 100 employees. 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.asbl.com/documents/20081007_Obama_Promise_Website.pdf)
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the U.S. Census Bureau support the President’s statement, yet the latest data from his administration illustrates that 61 of the top 100 small business contractors during FY 2010 were actually large firms. (www.asbl.com/documents/asbl_2010_dataanalysis.pdf)
“President Obama’s economic policies defy all logic and reason,” said ASBL President Lloyd Chapman. “If the President would stop diverting small business contract dollars to Fortune 500 firms, it would direct more than $100 billion a year in existing federal infrastructure spending to the middle class and the nation’s chief job creators. It requires no new taxes, no new spending, and it is deficit neutral.”