Organizing for America | Faron's Blog: Economic Stimulus and Recovery

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Economic Stimulus and Recovery

By Faron, NC - Feb 9th, 2009 at 9:08 am EST

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Tags: agencies, agency, Bi-partisan, create, economic stimulus, ECONOMICS, economy, federal, Financial, Fund, Funds, ideas, invest, investment, issue, issues, job, jobs, jobs for all, market, money, Opportunities, opportunity, options, package, plan, Problem, problems, progress, recover, recovery, recovery ideas, solution, stimulus, tax, Taxes

Unemployment: Regardless of the tax breaks, housing issues and all other ideas in any proposal. If you don’t stop the unemployment and put people back to work so they actually have money to benefit from the tax breaks and housing benefits proposed and so they can start purchasing items, getting loans for homes and vehicles, investing in stock and or otherwise spending money, then regardless of the amount of the package, you will not have stimulated spending or our economy. JOBS are the foundation of stimulation.

JOBS: It is vitally important that the jobs created are created throughout the country with various skills. I assure you that those that have lost their jobs and will lose their jobs are from various locations and with various skills. So specific projects, proposed in any bill, will not suffice since they are limited in both location and skill.

How do you create Jobs?: I continuously hear everyone say, including the President, that our small businesses are the backbone of job creation and our economy. Why is that? It’s because they are all across the country and provide a variety of jobs and they borrow and spend?
How do you stimulate small business?: Normally small businesses which are existing or that which wish to start up seek private funding through investement, loans and federal assistance. However due to the current economic EMERGENCY, the private sector options are no longer available. This leaves only Federal funding for small businesses.
Our Federal agencies hold many applications from small businesses.: Various agencies have applications from small businesses that want to do work, some of which the government is requesting to be done. Some of which they have come up with on their own, which are called “unsolicited proposals” but which could still be of value. Some of this work is manual labor, some of this work is research and a lot of it is a variety of other opportunities.
Some funds could already be available!: Many of these Federal agencies most likely already have some funds set aside for Grant funding or other funding. These agencies could pull all small business applications and Grand Total the amounts needed to fund all of them and the stimulus package could authorize additional funds, which may or may not be needed. The stimulus package and/or a Directive by the President should order these agencies to "clear their coffers". This may seem like an extreme measure, but these are extreme times.
Some may argue that this will diminish private investment opportunities.: Contrarily by providing these small businesses with funding to start up or perform work, they can begin to invest and seek investors with the capital which is provided to them and/or with their success as they grow .
Perhaps some of the funds being directed to the TARP packages could be redirected here.: Since the issue for our financial institutions is not neccesarily having the money available, but rather a way to move the money, our small businesses can provide for two means of helping with this issue. First they can provide the monies through creating bank accounts and/or making deposits into existing accounts. They will conduct daily business that will begin to rotate these funds and stimulate the economy.
The definition of small business has already been defined.: The Government has already defined the term "small business", so there is no need to redefine it or figure out what articulates into a small business.
These small businesses have already gone through the Grants.gov verification processes!: Before applying for Grants, SBIR’s and/or STTR’s each business must go through a verification process.
There are already established monitoring systems set up.: Government auditing, reports and etc..are already established by each agency.
Grants.gov already has bank routing numbers for each business.: As a requirement during the verification process, Grants.gov requires that a bank account already be established. The funds could be dispersed quickly and put to use quickly.
Unfortunately the amounts they offer, $100,000 to $150,00 in most case are not sufficient to actually start a business. A business beginning with nothing has to have the funds needed to buy supplies, lease property, purchase equipment etc… and cover salaries for at least a year to allow the business to grow and build a customer base which can sustain them. Another source for small business interest is the Small Business Administration.
It is important to provide enough funding: to allow for these businesses to start and to have enough to sustain them for at least a year, two years would be best, so that they can build a customer base to sustain themselves. Not all will succeed and it could be required that unused funds be returned if they fail. But I believe there will be many more that will succeed and some may even provide us all with some unexpected benefits.
So have theses agencies, a list of Granting Agencies is on Grants.gov, pull all small business applications and provide funding. Open up more opportunities for small businesses. These small businesses are ready, willing and able to begin work and put others to work, so let them.
What is the real benefit of small business?
They employ, they buy, they bank, they borrow, they invest, they provide investment opportunities and they spend all across the country.: This stabilizes current businesses and allows them to hire more employees, to buy, to borrow and to spend. They all pay taxes to their states, they pay for permits from municipalities, counties and/or other forms of government, creating State and local revenue. They are perpetual, in that they continue, whereas a stimulus check to Americans may help, it does not provide a continuing of spending and rotation of capital as small businesses would while conducting daily business. They do not require any trade agreement specifications or a “Buy American” provision.
Their employees buy, bank, invest, borrow and spend all across the country.: They pay State and local taxes which creates revenue for them.

In the end, the only real stimulation you could provide which can do what needs done, is through creating jobs all across the country with a variety of work skills. To meet that objective effectively you have to build up your small business base.

Taxes: This is another key part of the stimulation and recovery. Tax cuts can clearly help to build business and encourage spending by both the businesses and the workers, however to reiterate, if you don’t have a job, it does nothing.

Housing: Can be a part of helping and some legitimate proposals along these lines should always be considered.

State Aid: Some state aid can help, but keep in mind if you’re putting people to work you can reduce a large amount of funding for unemployment and Medicaid since it want be needed.

In closing, let's create jobs, create futures, stimulate capital rotation and continue this rotation and provide the ability to help pay back the debts incurred by the Federal Government. If small business is the backbone, then let’s support our back so we can stand up and walk, then maybe as we walk, we can soon begin to run again.

That way when all the other bills such as TARP and others can actually do some good.

Americans have a way of pulling themselves up. Give us a chance to show you how well we can do that and help us, help you, help us all.

Small Businesses, existing and new, could play a big part of stimulating our economy and progression to recovery. It should be included in conjunction with other ideas which are currently a part of the plan.

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By Jim Crowley Feb 9th 2009 at 10:52 am EST (Updated Feb 9th 2009 at 10:52 am EST)

I liked your thoughtful post. Had some intelligent thought to it. Unfortunately, I sense that all of us reading and making these posts on Obamas website are speaking to the choir. Makes us think someone in the administration is actually listening, but I doubt it.

The stimulus package will not reach small businesses which you spoke to. It will go into the pockets of only big corporations and work on the trickle down theory for jobs for union workers on big infrastructure work. Does little to help the cause of this recession which is housing and does little to give direct payroll tax relief, which would be the biggest stimulus.

The package is a pork barrel welfare bill that should not be passed in it's current form.

Barack promised that he'd listen to the American people. He only has the ear of the same old politicians and the same old lobbyists and is repeating the same mistakes of the Bush Administration of spend, spend, spend with no accountability.

Where is the change we were promised.

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