Treasury Plans Small-Business Aid

[Pirate Smile]

Source: The Wall Street Journal

By GREG HITT DAMIAN PALETTA and JONATHAN WEISMAN

WASHINGTON -- The Obama administration is looking to steer new assistance to the nation's small-business community, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told members of Congress Monday night.

In a closed-door meeting with House Democrats on Capitol Hill, Mr. Geithner said Obama officials are working on plans to boost liquidity for small businesses as part of the administration's broadening efforts to spur lending and arrest the pace of job losses, said individuals familiar with the meeting.
In the meeting, Mr. Geithner stressed that President Barack Obama is pressing to meet the nation's economic challenges, telling lawmakers that "we are doing in weeks what countries did in years," said one individual familiar with the session.

The Obama administration has already begun injecting billions of dollars into the economy from its $787 billion fiscal stimulus plan, through grants to state education and crime-fighting programs, Medicaid efforts, and transportation projects. Most workers will see small increases in take-home pay in their first April paychecks when withholding allowances are adjusted to reflect the Making Work Pay tax cut. The president's housing plan funnels $275 billion to U.S.-owned mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to assist in lowering the interest rates of struggling homeowners while enticing loan servicers to restructure still more mortgages.

But the hundreds of billions of dollars being sent to such business behemoths as Citigroup Inc., General Motors Corp. and American International Group Inc. have rankled many voters who have failed to see an equivalent concern for small-business and Main Street suffering.

White House officials on Monday night pointed to $730 million from the stimulus plan that went to the Small Business Administration to reduce small-business fees and guarantee a greater share of some SBA loans. The Obama budget would authorize the SBA to support $28 billion in lending guarantees.
In what appears to be an expansion of those efforts, Mr. Geithner said Monday that the Obama administration will launch a plan next week that will provide financing, liquidity and guarantees to open up small-business lending, which is seen as a crucial element of economic recovery.



Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123665146189479561.html

[Tansy_Gold]

1. Less than one-tenth of one percent

$730 million goes to SBA out of a $787 billion package.

That's less than one fucking tenth of one percent.

For every dollar that goes to "the stimulus," SBA gets 1/10 of a penny.


wankers.

[xchrom]

2. recommend for one tenth of one per cent -- should be way more. nt

[OhioChick]

3. Yes, it should. n/t

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[earth mom]

5. Big Whoop. Their idea of "small business" is NOT the mom & pop store on the corner.

Or most of us here on DU who would love to have start up cash for a business or to grow a business.

:grr:

[patriotvoice]

6. Yeah, I'll believe it when I really see it.

I was on SBA.gov yesterday, and they gallantly claimed a mere $785 million (more than the article, note) of the recovery act funds. That's paltry for the number of small businesses that keep this country going. It's not going to matter anyway if they give money to bankers who ARE ALREADY REFUSING TO LOAN. And who have, for some fucking time, refused to loan to small business on principle. Risk is higher, pay-off lower: if you weren't buying a house, getting a loan was next to impossible.

[Peace Patriot]

7. One of the best things they could do for small business is to regulate gas prices--

and nationalize the oil industry, if necessary, to prevent gas gouging, and under-production ploys.

Gas gouging has been absolutely killing small mail-order businesses, the tourist industry in many places (many small B&Bs, restaurants, shops, etc.), and the trucking industry. (Truckers, who often own their own rigs, are getting killed by a combo of gas gouging, loan gouging and insurance gouging.)

Another big help to small business would be un-privatizing, and subsidizing, the U.S. Postal Service, whose ever-increasing prices are hurting all small businesses, and mail-order businesses in particular. The Post Office is an ESSENTIAL service, like the road system, or fire departments. We cannot have an economy without it. It should NOT be required to break even--though it has been so well-run that it has, indeed, broken even under draconian, Reaganesque, privatization policy. But the cost is ever-increasing prices to those who can least afford it--and great harm to small business, which operates on very slim margins--and some cutbacks in service

Credit is, of course, important to small businesses--who are the CHIEF employers in the country--an amazing fact--and who should have been helped IMMEDIATELY, because they don't, and can't, outsource jobs. Small businesses are the backbone of America, and the hub of our communities. THAT is where most of the stimulus and bailout money should be going--not to traitorous, criminal financial sharks and banksters, and global corporations. The government should prosecute, recover monies and replace the banks, for their rampant looting of the American people, and their failure to free up credit, even after being bailed out with a trillion dollars!

[Abq_Sarah]

10. The problem with this

Is that oil prices aren't set by the government. If it were our own oil we were talking about, it could be held back from the market and used within the USA. But since we're not allowed to drill and remove our oil, we are at the mercy of other countries.

[doodadem]

8. I am a small business

I couldn't even get the local SBA office to return my phone calls. It's pathetic. I'd love to be able to hire my husband full time. He was laid off last June, and we also lost our health insurance then. We're both sick with the flu right now.....

The main thing that's going to help is the economy picking up in general. But other things that would be helpful: when I finally do get a check in, the bank holds it for a week. Now....you and I both know that with the advent of electronic banking, it doesn't matter that it's a large, out of state check--they know it's good. They just want to collect interest on my money for a week. I've been doing business there for 8 years.

Secondly, cut us some slack on taxes. We're still making installment payments on taxes from 3 years ago, when my husband had to cash in his first 401K, and we got hit with all the taxes on it. We're going to have the same thing this year, as he just cashed in the last one. It was either that, or file bankruptcy. So, we not only get hit with taxes and penalties on that (which we really needed to keep THAT money), but they also tax his unemployment. AND, any "rebates" go straight to the tax debt. We get nothing.

[Abq_Sarah]

9. There should be no interest or penalties

On tax payments. I ran into trouble several years ago when I was adding employees and was paying my 941s quarterly. I went over the limit by $25.00 one quarter because of overtime paid due to an employee being out sick and they assessed a penalty that was 10% of the total. So, because I was 25 bucks over the limit and should have paid monthly (which I would have had I known I was going to be over the limit), I got hit with a $252.00 penalty. Additionally, when we overpay our taxes, the IRS doesn't have to pay us interest but if we owe them money, they tack on interest fees. That's bullshit. I suspect as well that the audit rate for small businesses will go up under our new Treasury Secretary. They will be nickel and dimeing us trying to disallow legitimate deductions in order to suck extra money into the treasury.