Contact Information: Contact: Lloyd Chapman President American Small Business League (707) 789-9575
Presidential Debates in New Hampshire Ignore Small Businesses, Says American Small Business League
| Source: American Small Business League
PETALUMA, CA--(Marketwire - June 6, 2007) - The following is a statement by the American
Small Business League:
This week in Manchester, New Hampshire ten Republican Presidential
candidates and eight Democratic Presidential candidates debated a variety
of issues including the war in Iraq, healthcare, immigration and gays in
the military. One subject that was conspicuously absent from the debates
were any issues facing America's 25 million small businesses.
With the exception of a brief comment from Governor Mitt Romney about the
cost of healthcare for small businesses, the two words "small business"
were absent from the debates.
President Bush and members of Congress routinely refer to small businesses
as the backbone of our nation's economy. They're right: nationwide, small
business accounts for 50.1 percent of the private sector workforce with 98
percent of all U.S. firms having less than 100 employees.
An analysis by My Success Gateway
(http://www.mysuccessgateway.com/candidate.php), of the websites of major
Presidential candidates such as Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Mitt Romney,
John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani, found no mention of key issues facing
America's 25 million small businesses. Jim Peake, Founder and CEO of My
Success Gateway LLC, said, "It's surprising that the websites of major
Presidential candidates lack a concentration on solutions for small
businesses, seniors and veterans." Peak points out that 25 million small
businesses, 38 million AARP members and 25 million veterans possibly
represent 88 million potential votes, which is 72 percent of the 122
million popular votes collectively received by all candidates during the
2004 election
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._presidential_election,_2004).
Since both political parties have repeatedly promised to clean up fraud in
government; small business advocates watched the debates hoping to see some
mention of the twelve federal investigations that found the Small Business
Administration had included billions in federal contracts to Fortune 1000
corporation such as Boeing, Lockheed, L3 Communications, Raytheon and Rolls
Royce towards the federal governments 23 percent small business goal. Two
separate investigations found that fraud was responsible for the diversion
of federal small business contracts to big businesses.
"The fact that there were no questions or comments relating to America's 25
million small businesses is a prime example that small businesses do not
have the voice in Washington they deserve," American Small Business League
President Lloyd Chapman said. "We are going to change that before the next
debates."