Small-business owners frustrated with stimulus
Small-business owners are scratching their heads, as they look at their revenue dollars and then read the Small Business Administration’s contracting figures as to where the stimulus money has gone.
Rudy Sutherland, chairman of 8-PAC, a small-business trade group, said in an e-mail, “Where are you getting your numbers from? I have a large trade association made up of the categories you are speaking of in this article; none of whom can find any opportunities from the ARRA.”
A Small Business Administration official presented the numbers before a Senate committee. As of Oct. 2, the government, on whole, has spent 26 percent of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act’s funds on contracts for small businesses, an estimated $4 billion, said Joseph Jordan, SBA's associate administrator for government contracting and business development. Jordan made the statement at an Oct. 6 hearing of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee.
Other small-business owners, like Sutherland, are skeptical about those figures.
Ron Roybal wrote in response to the article about Johnson, “I am a small-business owner and would like to know where the money is going, and who is getting it. Where is the transparency? All I see is unemployment numbers going up, and small businesses going out of business. Small businesses need help now.”
These frustrated owners actually think Johnson’s numbers are a joke.
Jerry De Lacosta from California wrote that the large companies with a small-business front get the money. “Talk is cheap!”
“It is extremely frustrating to know that you have a well-liked solution that can and will save the government lots of money, but you can't get past the political decision-makers," he added.
Joe Krippelz, owner of a small manufacturing company in Aurora, Ill., asks the government to “take a look at us,” the business-owners who are taking the hits to keep their companies alive.
And he has a suggestion for President Barack Obama:
“Mr. Obama, call together the thousands of independent business owners who helped put you in the White House to see what can be done to help us stay in business today, so we can keep the American dream alive for our grandchildren tomorrow, and forever!”
Posted by Matthew Weigelt on Oct 13, 2009 at 8:06 AM