Aid to Small Businesses (... I mean, Big Banks)

Obama today offered a fresh package of aid to ... uhm ... "small businesses."  In his speech, he called America's small businesses the "Heart of the American economy."

"You deserve a chance.  America needs to give you that chance," Obama told a group of small business owners gathered in the White House East Room.  

Treasury Secretary, Timothy "Turbo Tax" Geithner was by his side, but did not offer tips on how small businesses could avoid paying their taxes.  Instead, he made a statement echoing Obama and saying that as small businesses prosper, so does the nation.  

"As president I will continue to do everything in my power to ensure that you have the opportunity to contribute to your community...." Obama said.  This was likely a veiled reference to increasing taxes on small businesses, but the MainStream media will not report it as such.

What is this "significant aid" package to small businesses that Obama is offering today?

... $15 billion dollars ... to go to the nation's 21 largest banks, and a monthly report on how much they lend to small businesses.

Read more...

Small Business to get Short Shrift from Obama Administration

As the Ford Motor Company prepares to cash its first multi-billion dollar corporate welfare check and hand part of it over to the union, it’s easy to forget that almost exactly a century ago, this multi-billion dollar behemoth with 240,000 employees was just another young small business with big dreams about to launch its next product.

While many small businesses fail, including Henry Ford’s first two attempts, a precious few survive, thrive, and then change the world, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in the process. Just about all of the great American companies were once mere dreams in the mind of an entrepreneur. Microsoft, Apple, Intel, McDonald’s, and WalMart are but a few examples.

The ability to start a small business and grow it into a much larger enterprise is the greatest wealth creation opportunity in America. Studies have shown that 2/3 of all millionaires are small business owners.  Entrepreneurs and their children and grandchildren make up almost the entire Forbes 400 list of richest Americans.

If small businesses are the economic engine that creates jobs, builds wealth, and makes the American dream possible, then naturally our new president plans to support and rely upon them and give them everything they need to pull us out of the economic slump, right?  Well, no.

Small businesses are facing the most hostile climate in a generation, and it is not just the slumping economy and credit crunch.  With the quiet scrapping of the $3,000 job creation tax credit — which was “never set in stone” according to a senior Obama adviser –  there is no more small business tax relief on the horizon.  (Clearly, campaign pledges are only valid if chiseled into tablets, Ten Commandments-style.)

(Read the whole article by Tristan Yates here)

Read more...