Small Business Turns Against "Uncle Sam"

Small businesses think they are being abandoned by the federal government just when they really need something in exchange for their tax dollars.

A new poll from American Management Services reveals that almost no one in the small business sector thinks that it is getting any meaningful support during the present economic crisis.

According to The Financial Express, the survey of owners of small businesses "reveals that 63 per cent of respondents feel that the Federal government is doing "nothing" and another 23 per cent say it is doing little." The poll also shows that very few small businesses think the Bush stimulus package did their operations one iato of good.

To make matters worse, those polled believe that the government is doing a great deal to help larger businesses and financial firms.

Are the perspectives fair? Probably.

Consumers and small businesses have both been sitting by as the Fed has given "cheap money" to large banks and brokerages in the form of lower interest rates and emergency loans. Firms like MBIA (MBI) and Fannie Mae (FNM) would almost certainly be in much worse shape if the Fed and Treasury had not seen fit to intercede as their problems became critical.

To make matters worse, the administration and Congress have not done anything tangible for small business in the form of credits for high fuel and commodities costs or a "low cost" loan program aimed at companies with fewer that 500 employees.

Since more than half of the US workforce is at these smaller companies, a failure to give them concrete aid packages almost assures an increase in unemployment and is another reason the recession is likely to deepen.

Douglas A. McIntyre