Lloyd Chapman: Romney Will Never Mention Two of President Obama's Biggest Broken Campaign Promises

PETALUMA, CA--(Marketwire - Nov 5, 2012) - The following is a statement by American Small Business League President Lloyd Chapman:

I can tell you two of President Obama's broken campaign promises you will never hear Mitt Romney mention.

At every campaign stop for two years, Barack Obama promised that if he were elected President, he would enact a windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry. He said the proceeds would go to help Americans pay their energy bills. The day after he was elected, the windfall profits tax on the oil and gas industry was the first item listed under the economy section of his "Change.gov" website. That was Wednesday. By Thursday, the windfall profits tax proposal had mysteriously vanished without a trace or any explanation. President Obama never mentioned it again and he never made any attempt to explain to the American people why he so mysteriously dropped one of his most consistent campaign promises. As far as I know, not one member of the press ever asked President Obama what happened to the windfall profits tax. Not one -- ever.

In a blog for the Huffington Post, I broke the story that President Obama had dropped his much promised windfall profits tax. The story was picked up across the globe and garnered around 3,500 comments.

The price of gas has remained high under President Obama. Oil companies are still making record profits and paying miniscule federal taxes. We are struggling to balance our federal budget and reduce our spiraling deficit, but you will never hear Mitt Romney or President Obama mention a windfall tax on the oil and gas industry. You will probably never hear any politician make any mention of oil companies paying a fair tax rate. The oil and gas industry has the kind of political muscle even a president is afraid of.

The next was President Obama's broken campaign promise to end the Bush administration's policy of diverting billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 1000 firms here in the U.S. and to dozens of corporate giants worldwide.

In February 2008, Barack Obama released this statement: "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's time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants." 

Not only did President Obama fail to keep that campaign promise, the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants worldwide is getting worse. Some of the firms the Obama administration has diverted federal small business contracts to include Boeing, Hewlett Packard, AT&T, Motorola, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Apple, John Deere, Rockwell Collins, General Electric, General Dynamics, Office Depot, Xerox, Dell and ManTech.

Every year of the Obama administration, the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA OIG) has named the diversion of federal small business contracts to large businesses as the number one management challenge facing the SBA.

Not only did President Obama fail to keep his campaigns promise to end the diversion of small business contracts to large businesses, he tried to cover it up by removing the parent company Dun & Bradstreet number from the government's Central Contractor Registration (CCR) database. Federal investigators, aiming to uncover big businesses masquerading as small businesses, use this number. This little cover-up would have also gone unnoticed had I not pointed it out and issued a national press release about it. In the end, I sued the General Services Administration (GSA) in federal court and forced them to restore the number.

So, in the midst of the worst economic downturn in 80 years, in a country where the U.S. Census Bureau tells us small businesses create more than 90 percent of net new jobs, President Obama knowingly, willfully and intentionally diverted federal small business contracts to hundreds of the biggest companies in the world and tried to cover it up. The single most astonishing thing is not one single member of the press in four years has ever asked him why he has diverted federal small business funds to worldwide corporate giants. NOT ONE -- EVER! So much for preserving journalistic integrity. 

In all likelihood, Mitt Romney won't even come close to winning the election. Clearly, he would rather lose than mention two of President Obama's most damaging broken campaign promises.