– George A. Cloutier, a graduate of Harvard Business School, is the founder and CEO of American Management Services, one of the nation’s largest turnaround and management services firms specializing in small and mid-size companies. He is also the author of the upcoming book, “Profits aren’t Everything, They’re the Only Thing.” The views expressed are his own. –
Why are the Obama Administration, Congress, and the Senate marginalizing the nation’s largest industry in the new stimulus plan?
Small Business Inc. employs about 60 million people, accounts for 70 percent of new jobs each year, and clearly represents the backbone of almost every regional and local economy. For this vital industry, the administration has allocated less than 1 percent ($700 million earmarked vs. $1 trillion in proposals). The nation’s leaders continue the small business program of the Bush years: talk a lot and do practically nothing.
The sponsors of the bill, most likely to succeed, say that small business will benefit indirectly from the spending programs. This is the same discredited thinking of Reagan’s “trickle-down” economics.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Lawrence Summers, director of the Economic Policy Council, have absolutely no experience with small business.
