PETALUMA, Calif., Feb. 11, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- President Obama's 2016 Budget Proposal includes the resurrection of a plan President Ronald Reagan attempted to use to permanently close the Small Business Administration (SBA) and end all federal programs designed to assist middle class small businesses.
President Reagan made it clear he wanted to permanently close the Small Business Administration and end all federal programs that had been established by the Small Business Act to help small businesses. His plan to close the SBA was to combine it with the Department of Commerce.
In 2011, Fox News reported on a bill written by North Carolina Senator Richard Burr that would permanently close the SBA and bring and end to all federal programs to assist small businesses. Like Ronald Reagan, combining the SBA with the Department of Commerce was Senator Burr's plan to close the SBA.
President Obama's plan to close the SBA is identical to Reagan and Burr's proposal, which is to close the agency by combining it with the Department of Commerce.
Critics of the Obama plan to close the SBA point the fact the SBA is the only federal agency created to help middle class small businesses. SBA supporters point out U.S. Census Bureau data that indicate over 98% of all U.S. firms have less than 100 employees. That data also indicates small businesses are responsible for over 90% of the net new Jobs in America, over 50% of the private sector work force, over 50% of the Gross Domestic Product and over 90% of all U.S. exporters.
American Small Business League (ASBL) President Lloyd Chapman first predicted President Obama would try and close the SBA by combining it with the Department of Commerce in November of 2008. Since then Chapman has done national television and radio interviews predicting President Obama would try and close the SBA to cover-up fraud and abuse at the agency that allowed Fortune 500 firms to receive billions of dollars in federal small business contracts.
ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox News, CNBC, MSNBC and RTTV have all produced segments on fraud in federal small business programs.
"President Obama claims he wants to close the SBA to streamline government. You can't streamline the federal government by closing the smallest agency in Washington. How about the trillions that are unaccounted for at the Pentagon, maybe he should start there. The real reason he wants to close the SBA is to obscure the rampant fraud that federal investigators and investigative journalist have uncovered in every SBA program during his administration," said Chapman.
The President's 2016 budget plan now goes to Congress.
"The End of an Era: Obama's Plan to Close Small Business Administration" video