Obama - 'Help' for Small Businesses

Obama the Generous wants to the government to offer "assistance" to small businesses.

My advice to small businesses: DON'T ACCEPT. RUN! RUN!!!

You don't want Obama's Pay Czar Kenneth Feinberg meddling in your business.

From the Washington Times:

President Obama asked Congress on Wednesday to help community banks lend money to small businesses -- pillars of the U.S. economy hit hard by the recession.

"Major banks need no new assistance," Mr. Obama said while visiting a small business in suburban Washington. "Make more money available so banks can watch [small businesses] grow from down the street, not Wall Street."

...Mr. Obama wants Congress to increase the cap to $5 million on two major small-business loans -- the 7A and 504.

The most common loan, the 7A, provides money for inventory, land and buildings.

Mr. Obama also asked Congress to make more money available for smaller loans, known as "micro loans," and said Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner will lead an upcoming conference on "what steps we can take to get more credit for small business."

He said the owners of Metropolitan Archives used a Small Business Administration loan to buy their building.

Mr. Obama said smaller banks must put together a plan to lend to small businesses to become eligible for the additional, lower-interest credit.

The president said small businesses continue to struggle with such problems as not meeting payrolls and no credit to expand, as other sectors of the U.S. economy recover.

He said that small businesses account for 65 percent of all new jobs and that 50 percent of U.S. workers either are employed by or own a small business. However, 2.4 million small-business jobs were lost in the recession.

All small business owners have to do is look at what's happening to the large businesses that accepted government "assistance."

That should be enough to make them not even consider getting in bed with Obama.

From Bloomberg:

The Obama administration slammed Wall Street by ordering pay cuts of an average of 50 percent and caps on benefits for top executives at companies owing the government billions of dollars from taxpayer-funded bailouts.

The news triggered debate about the government’s reach into private industry, whether pay reductions would spread to other companies and if a talent drain from U.S. firms would ensue. Others cheered the move.

“I don’t think there will be any charity cases on Wall Street,” said Representative Barney Frank, 69, a Democrat from Massachusetts and chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, in a telephone interview. “This is a very good thing.”

...The administration, mindful of popular anger over Wall Street bonuses and risk-taking that sparked the worst financial crisis in seven decades, responded favorably to Feinberg’s work.

“The president put Ken Feinberg in place in order to be an advocate for taxpayers and it appears that Feinberg is doing what the president put him in place to do,” said Bill Burton, a White House spokesman.

Some compensation experts said that the moves would drive talent out of U.S. financial institutions when their expertise was most needed.

“The government is acting like the owner they are, and they’re a pretty ticked-off owner,” said Steven Hall, managing director of New York-based compensation consultant Steven Hall & Partners LLC. “The fear is, will this make people throw up their hands and say, ‘I have to leave’?”

I don't see this as sticking it to Wall Street execs.

I see this as Obama reaching into private business, taking over, extending government control.

It's not a good thing.

Moral of the story: DON'T TAKE GOVERNMENT MONEY, SMALL BUSINESSES. YOU'LL BE SORRY.