According to the Small Business Administration, over the past 25 years, small businesses have created about two-thirds of the new jobs in the U.S. The 2007 Small Business Economy (latest available – see http://www.sba.gov/advo/research/sb_econ2007.pdf) says on page 1:
“In 2004, the most recent year for which firm size data are available, small firms with fewer than 500 employees accounted for all of the net new jobs. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, firms with fewer than 500 employees had a net gain of 1.86 million new jobs, while firms with 500 or more employees had a net loss of 181,000 jobs. Small firms employ just over half of the private sector work force and generated more than half of nonfarm private gross domestic product. More than 99 percent of American businesses are small,…..”So one might expect that he would devote at least half of the stimulus help for businesses to small businesses. Has he done that?
Let’s see, the government so far has invested $4.6 trillion in various financial institutions like AIG, has lent $2.3 trillion to ailing companies like auto manufacturers, and has insured $2.1 trillion in assets owned by banks, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. So as of March 16, the government has committed a total of about $9 trillion to big businesses, and spent about $2.2 trillion of those commitments. (Go to http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/02/04/business/20090205-bailout-totals-graphic.html to see the current breakout – this page is kept current.)
And President Obama thinks committing $15 billion to small businesses is a big deal? He has already committed twice that much just to General Motors alone.
If this is the party that is supposed to be for the little guy rather than big business, I’m not impressed
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