Bush Ignores Small Businesses With Last State of the Union Address, Says American Small Business League

PETALUMA, CA--(Marketwire - January 30, 2008) - The following is a statement by the American Small Business League:

With the pressure of the economic downturn on his shoulders, President George W. Bush delivered his final State of the Union Address Monday, and to the dismay of small business advocates failed to adequately address the concerns of the more than 26 million small businesses across the country.

During his two-term presidency, President Bush has established an anti-small business track record by cutting the Small Business Administration's staffing and budget by more than half and by adopting policies that allowed the diversion of federal small business contracts to Fortune 1000 corporations and other large companies.

The American Small Business League (ASBL) points to the SBA's June 2007 5-year re-certification rule as an example of the Bush Administration's anti-small business policies. The rule, which went into effect on June 30th, allows the federal government to continue to count small business contract awards to Fortune 1000 corporations towards the 23 percent small business procurement goal through 2012.

"Over the past seven years he [President Bush] has ignored more than a dozen federal investigations that have all found fraud, abuse, loopholes and a lack of oversight to be contributing factors to the diversion of federal small business contracts to large and international corporations," President and Founder of the ASBL Lloyd Chapman said. "We estimate that every year nearly $100 billion in federal small business contract awards are awarded to Fortune 1000 corporations."

The ASBL estimates that Bush administration policies have allowed more than $100 billion a year to be diverted from legitimate small businesses to the top 2 percent of firms in the United States and Europe. (http://www.asbl.com/documents/Fedmine.pdf)

"With the economy slumping, President Bush should be focusing on helping the backbone of America, its small businesses," Chapman said. "By stopping the diversion of federal small business contracts to large and international corporations, we would be putting nearly $100 billion back into the hands of middle class firms where most Americans work."

Contact Information: Contact: Christopher Gunn Communications Director American Small Business League (707) 789-9575