The three main components include: take further steps to provide small businesses with access to credit by supporting community bank lending through the Financial Stability Plan; seek legislation to increase maximum SBA loan sizes to allow more businesses to access the credit they need; and convening a Treasury-SBA Small Business Lending Conference to work with regulators, lenders and Congress to ensure credit is available to small business.  Do we really need more conversations on the issue?  Let’s get something done.

Access to credit is critical for many of our small businesses – as credit has tightened over the last year, many of our small businesses have felt the pinch.  But, if we have learned anything from Bailout Mania which has swept over Washington, DC, spreading around federal dollars and increasing government loans will do very little to actually stimulate our economy.  Instead we need policies that will have a positive, long-term impact on businesses and allow them to get more access to capital, reduce their overall costs and allow them to invest more in their employees and their business.  We need less government involvement, not more.

We have been arguing for a reduction (or elimination) of the payroll tax; allowing small businesses to cross state lines to purchase more affordable health insurance for their employees; elimination of the Alternative Minimum tax; and reducing federal mandates that cost time and money.

Long-term, free market solutions will do more to get our economy going and keep it going, than more federal handouts.  What do you think?

This year has produced some compelling numbers in financial performance:

• 31% of companies have grown and 21% are stable and have neutral performance. 
• 54% have made their business environmental friendly.
• 35% are interested in making their business environmental friendly.

These women members of WPO say their greatest threats to the bottom line  are economic conditions, customer retention, competition, and human resources.  Fifty five percent plan to hire additional employees in 2010 and 53% have kept employee salaries the same with 15% increasing employee salaries.

At a time when unemployment is headed toward 10% in this country (this rate hasn’t been this high since the ‘80’s), women owned businesses continue to grow.  Have we heard about this new survey in the mainstream media?  Are people talking about this success?  Can we find strength and motivation in these numbers?  Yes, we can!  This is the free market at work.

Membership in WPO requires a member to have $2 million in gross annual sales or $1 million for service-based business.  WPO members collectively generate $14.5 billion in annual revenue and represent about 22,000 years of collective business experience.  The membership comprises 1,400 accomplished women entrepreneurs at the multi-million dollar level who aim to increase their business success.  Women now drive the world economy.  Globally, they control about $20 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as $28 trillion in the next five years. 

What say you about this ray of sunshine?

For the past decade, our nation's small businesses have produced 60 percent to 80 percent of the new jobs on an annual basis.  After 9/11 in 2001, small businesses produced 100 percent of all net new jobs to help pull us out of the doldrums.  Small business owners even employ about half of all U.S. workers.  Setting aside one week a year to honor successful entrepreneurs is meaningful.  On Wednesday, May 20, the national small business person of the year will be announced!

The public is invited to attend key forums during this week.  These public forums will feature leading experts discussing issues of critical importance to small businesses and to policy makers. Listed below are Town Hall moderators and speakers and if you can't attend in person, visit SBA's online webcasting at http://www.NationalSmallBusinessWeek.com/.

Every time you visit a small business this week, congratulate them on their success and thank them for taking the risk.

WHO:    
                Town hall and forum moderators and speakers include:

                JJ Ramberg, Host of MSNBC's "Your Business" and Town Hall Moderator
                Joseph Jordan, SBA Government Contracting and Business Development
                Sara Lipscomb, SBA General Counsel
                Brian Moran, Moran Media Group
                Raghav Lal, Visa Global Business
                Stacey Wueste, HP's Imaging and Printing Group
                Nancy Gioia, Ford Hybrid Vehicle Programs
                Rieva Lesonsky, CEO of GrowBiz Media
                John Jantsch, Creator of the Duct Tape Marketing for small business

WHAT:   
                TOWN HALL AND KEY BUSINESS FORUMS on critical issues that
                impact small business and the economy to include:

                 Town Hall Meeting: Successful Business Strategies in a Down Economy

                 Financial: Strengthening Small Businesses in a Challenging Economy

                 Innovation: Technology – Our Competitive Edge

                 Social Media: Transforming the Way You Do Business 

WHERE:   
                   National Small Business Week
                   Mandarin Oriental Hotel
                   1330 Maryland Ave., SW
                   Washington, D.C.

WHEN:   
                   May 18-19, 2009

Visit http://www.NationalSmallBusinessWeek.com/ for registration details and schedule

                                                         *Forums have a nominal $5 fee each to attend.

The Congressional Budget Office reports that only 7% of the stimulus spending (approx. $358 billion of the total) will be spent this year. By the end of 2010, only 38% will be spent. And by the end of 2011, only 67% will be spent. Here's a link to a Washington Post story about the CBO Report.

Peter Orszag (Office of Management and Budget) contradicted the CBO report, saying that three-fourths of the OVERALL stimulus package (spending + tax cuts) would hit the ground within 18 months. This is a nuanced, subtle way of saying that the TAX CUTS have a more immediate effect than the SPENDING. Here's a link to a Reuters story about Orszag's comments.

A new website: http://www.readthestimulus.org/ encourages someone to read the bill before passing it. The $825 billion stimulus package will exceed more than $1.1 trillion when adding in the interest ($300 plus billion) between 2009-2019 to pay for it.

The stimulus plan includes funding for contraceptives, family planning, Sexual Transmitted Disease prevention, and so forth. (This is NOT an economic issue nor stimulus. It IS spending.)

Some specific line items in the stimulus bill:

• $650 million for digital TV coupons.
• $600 million to buy new cars for the federal government.
• $6 billion for colleges/universities – many which have billion dollar endowments.
• $44 million for repairs to U.S. Department of Agriculture headquarters.
• $200 million for the National Mall, including $21 million for sod.
• $360 million for new child care centers at military bases.
• $200 million for "Leaking Underground Storage Tank Trust Fund Program"
• $14 million for funding the Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board and their Independent Advisory Panel which will consist of a total of 12 people.
• $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (more than a 30% funding increase).
• $1.1 billion to Amtrak, the federal train service that can't make a profit even during good economic times.
• $30 billion for highway and bridge construction.
• $300 million to upgrade job training facilities that serve unemployed youth. Reducing or eliminating the minimum wage would help these youth find jobs more than a stimulus bill…
• $400 million for habitat restoration projects.
• $4.2 billion for the government to purchase vacant properties to reduce neighborhood blight.
• $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants. This is a catch-all fund for projects that don't fit into other "stimulus" categories.
• $200 million fund for rural areas to build "community facilities," such as for healthcare, education, fire and rescue, day care, community centers, and libraries.

NOT SPECIFICALLY MENTIONED IN THE STIMULUS BILL is a list of 18,750 projects, proposed by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. These are the sorts of projects that mayors said will be funded with money such as the non-descript Community Development Block Grant or the rural development money in the stimulus bill.

• $2 million for North Miami households to switch to energy-efficient light bulbs (how many taxpayers does it take to change a light bulb?).
• $886,000 for a 36-hole "disk-golf" course (Frisbee meets golf) in Austin, Texas
• $33,725 for automatically flushing toilets in Sumter, SC
• $1.4 million children's water park in Pine Bluff, Arkansas
• $500,000 dog park in Chula Vista, California.
• $6 million to construct three aquatics facilities (Olympic pool, waterslide, water playground, bathhouse) in Shreveport, LA.
• $320,000 for lights at the Brockton, Mass. little league ball field.
• $50,000 for two (2) dog parks in Lewiston, Maine.
• $325,000 to buy 25 new cars for the City of Dearborn, Michigan. Automobile industry stimulus?
• $1.5 million to replace the Roseville, MN, golf course clubhouse and maintenance shop.
• $50,000 to purchase two (2) police cars for town of Friars Point, MS.
• $60,000 to hire two (2) new police officers in Friars Point, MS to drive the two (2) new cars.
• $250,000 to replace gymnasium floor and repaint South Rocky Mount, NC Community Center
• $500,000 for public marina floating docks in Elizabeth, NH
• $6 million for the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates Hurricane Shelter and Community Center
• $1 million to seal coat the streets of Idaho Falls, Idaho.
• The adult entertainment industry also requested $5 billion of the funding, but that didn't show up in anyone's stimulus plan.

The plan establishes at least 32 new government programs at a cost of over $136 billion. That means more than a third of this plan's spending provisions are dedicated to creating new government programs.

The plan increases spending in at least 150 different federal programs, ranging from Amtrak to the Transportation Security Administration. Is this the "targeted" plan Democratic leaders promised?

The total cost of this one piece of legislation is almost as much as the annual discretionary budget for the entire federal government.

The bill will cost each and every household $6,700 in additional debt, paid for by our children and grandchildren.

The bill provides enough spending – $825 billion – to give $2,700 to every man, woman, and child in America.

$825 billion is enough to give every person living in poverty in the United States $22,000.

Although the stimulus bill has been billed as a transportation and infrastructure investment package, in actuality only $30 billion of the bill – or three percent – is for road and highway spending. A recent study from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office found that only 25 percent of infrastructure dollars can be spent in the first year, making the one year total less than $7 billion.

Much of the funding within the House Democrats' proposal will go to programs that already have large, unexpended balances. For example, the bill provides $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) – a program that already has $16 billion on hand. States also are sitting on some $9 billion in unused highway funds – funds that Congress is prepared to rescind later this year.

All board members of the "Accountability and Transparency Board" created by this legislation are appointees of the President; none will be appointed by Congress.

A scant 2.7 percent, or $22.3 billion of the overall package, is dedicated to small business tax relief.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that the legislation increases by seven million the number of people who get a check back from the IRS that exceeds what they paid in payroll and income taxes.

The "Making Work Pay" tax credit at the center of the plan amounts to $1.37 a day, or about the price of a cup of coffee.

Almost one-third of the "tax relief" in the stimulus bill is spending in disguise, meaning that true tax relief makes up only 24 percent of the total package – not the 40 percent that President Obama had requested.

Health-related stimulus.  The House Ways & Means committee approved several health-related measures as part of the stimulus package:

• $87 billion in Medicaid spending to shore up state Medicaid budgets.
• $9 billion in Medicaid spending to fund state expansions of Medicaid to cover low-income people who lose their jobs through 2010.
• Expansion of COBRA health insurance (which allows people who lose their jobs to retain their employer-sponsored health insurance).
• People 55 or older, and those with 10 years of tenure or more at their jobs, can retain their insurance until they find a new job – or until they are old enough to enter Medicare.
• Subsidizes COBRA payments for up to 12 months, covering 65% of premiums.
• Currently there are no COBRA subsidies and the benefits are limited to 18 months.
• $20 billion to create standards for health information technology and implement systems for public insurance programs.
• Hospitals would be eligible for payments of $2 million if they adopt electronic medical records.
• Doctors would receive up to $65,000 each.
• Providers would be penalized if they don't adopt the technology before 2016.

Tax stimulus.  The House Ways & Means Committee approved $275 billion worth of tax cuts.  Under the terms of the plan, the number of taxpayers who would get more in refunds than they actually pay in payroll taxes would increase from 15 million to 22 million. 

• $145 billion for the new "Making Work Pay" refundable tax credit.  This is a rebate for each worker's first $500 in Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes ($1,000 for couples).  The credit begins phasing out for individuals making more than $75,000 or couples making $150,000.
• Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) by raising the size of the credit for large families and raising the threshold at which the credit begins to phase out.
• $18.3 billion to make the child tax credit completely refundable for 2009 and 2010.
• $2,500 tax credit for the first four years of college.
• Allow bonus depreciation for businesses.
• Reduce tax liabilities for up to five preceding years of net operating losses.
• $20 billion/3-year expansion of the renewable-energy tax credit.

Spending stimulus.  The House Appropriations Committee approved $358 billion worth of spending, in spite of a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that only 7% of the funds would be spent this year.  By the end of 2010, only 38% would be spent; and by the end of 2011, only 67% would be spent (not exactly the definition of "stimulus," some would say).  Among the more ridiculous spending items:

• $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (more than a 30% funding increase).
• $650 million to pay for TV-top boxes that will convert analog signals to digital.  Congress is forcing a switch to digital TV signal this year.
• $1.1 billion to Amtrak, the federal train service that can't make a profit even during good economic times.
• $300 million to upgrade job training facilities that serve unemployed youth (never mind that reducing or eliminating the minimum wage would help these youth find jobs).
• $400 million for habitat restoration projects (growing trees and such).
• $850 million to cut down trees that cause a hazard for wildfires (hopefully not in the habitat restoration areas).
• Requires all contractors to pay their workers the prevailing wage under Davis-Bacon laws.  The federal Davis-Bacon Act sets construction wages at the "prevailing level" –  which turns out to be the level set by the building trades unions.
• Prevents Illinois from receiving any stimulus aid unless Gov. Rod Blagojevich is no longer in office.

Energy stimulus.  The House Energy & Commerce Committee approved $54 billion worth of energy-related stimulus, mostly focusing on modernizing the nation's power grid and developing renewable and alternative energy sources.  Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI) offered an amendment designed to promote nuclear energy by qualifying "zero emissions" sources for stimulus funds, the amendment was defeated.

Housing foreclosures.  One item that Speaker Pelosi said she would like to include in the stimulus package, but has not been decided yet, is the so-called "cramdown" provisions that would allow bankruptcy judges to alter the terms of residential mortgages – essentially allowing judges to rewrite the terms of mortgage contracts to alter interest rates, reduce principal, or extend the terms of mortgage agreements.  Fierce opposition from the financial industry may keep this out of the stimulus package.

If you read to the bottom of this, you surely must be livid at this point? These are your dollars being spent. Would you spend this kind of money on these kinds of items if you could afford to? If you had two trillion dollars sitting around, is this what you would spend it on? Tell me about it by commenting on my blog…………..

Small business women and men are thankful to live in a country where dreams shape reality, and where hard work is still appreciated and honored.

Small businesses annually create two-thirds of all new jobs, and contribute an astonishing one-half of the national Gross Domestic Product. America's small enterprises are finding new frontiers every day, and small business women and men still live, in modern ways, the dreams of the Pilgrims and the pioneers of old.

It's interesting how many people are surprised to learn how essential "mom and pop" entrepreneurs remain to broader achievement of the American dream.

In these times of economic uncertainty, it is important to preserve the American small business – a way of life that has endured since our country began.

This year, there may be small business owners who gather around the Thanksgiving table this year with a smaller turkey and fewer trimmings. They may even be working on the holiday.

Times are tough for many. However, it's appropriate to take some time to be thankful, even among the difficulties.

It is a blessing to live and work in America, where "the wealth of nations" has been most dramatically uplifted in ways that empower average people and improve the lives of millions.

But of course, there is still so much to be done. The bounty of the land and the genius of the people must combine so that every American willing to work is able to get a job, at a wage sufficient to support a decent standard of living.

America does it the best, for which we should be truly thankful. But in this land we dare to dream of doing even better. We should be thankful for that, too.

People in small business can certainly be thankful, but are still hopeful for more opportunity and better lives for themselves and the country.

For example, we praise tax cuts that, over the last few years, have allowed us to give raises to good employees, buy more equipment and become more efficient. But small businesses could use additional tax relief to do even more.

Small business people who have been surviving through the financial crises are thankful for community bankers who used sensible and sound policies to stay out of the sub-prime mess. But they would be grateful, as well, for reforms in health care, taxes and workplaces that reduce burdens on small businesses in challenging times. Small business needs access to capital and fewer regulatory burdens.

Some in small business are thankful that success has allowed them to provide good health insurance to employees, yet it would be nice if employers were allowed to purchase individually owned, portable health insurance with pre-tax dollars, and to pass on those benefits to employees.

There is so much that is good about our system and our economy. Yet still there remain corners of injustice and illogic.

Some Americans are grateful to have bosses who allow flexible work hours, but many more could benefit by greater flexibility in labor laws, allowing workers to attend a child's soccer game or take a parent to the doctor one week, and make up those hours the following week.

And shouts of thankfulness and joy would certainly arise if all benefits were taxed in such a way that they didn't raise marginal tax rates for two-income couples and avoided the earnings penalty for seniors who work.

At this time of Thanksgiving, small businesses and workers have much to be thankful for. But there remains work to be done. America needs policies that free small businesses to compete and that provide flexibility, portability and security for employees. The backbone of America is at stake.

Tomorrow is rushing in, bringing a world where the few constants will include fierce competition from abroad. But it will also bring gratitude for the chance to live free, and live well, in America.

Happy Thanksgiving and thanks to small business owners for taking the risks to reward others.