Small Business Mentioned only 3 Times in State of the Union Speech

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January 29, 2014

By Bob Coleman
Editor, Coleman Report

obamastateoftheunionSeemingly satisfied that his administration has made more SBA loans in the last five years than any other, and acknowledging small business creates the most jobs, the only proposal by President Obama for Main Street was to focus on exporting, not access to capital – which had nary a mention in his State of the Union Speech.

Here is the only paragraph about Main Street, “Let’s do more to help the entrepreneurs and small business owners who create most new jobs in America. Over the past five years, my administration has made more loans to small business owners than any other. And when 98 percent of our exporters are small businesses, new trade partnerships with Europe and the Asia Pacific will help them create more jobs. We need to work together on tools like bipartisan Trade Promotion Authority to protect our workers, protect our environment, and open new markets to new goods stamped “Made in the USA.”

NADCO prez, Beth Solomon expressed disappointment in the speech, “America’s small businesses did not feature significantly in the SOTU speech. As our small businesses account for the employment of more than half of all US workers, we were pleased to hear President Obama reference record-high lending to small business during his administration including the REAL (504) Loan Program, which enables small businesses to buy real property and fixed assets. In 2013, this initiative delivered more than 7,700 loans to communities across the country for a total of more than $11.7 billion in lending. While we hope the administration continues to build on this momentum in the year ahead, the nation needs more focus on a small business job creation agenda to fuel a more comprehensive economic recovery.”

National Small Business Association chief Todd McCracken took a broader view of the President’s speech, “The NSBA was pleased to hear the president’s support for enhancing exporting opportunities for small firms and sensible immigration reform. However, he missed the mark in calling for economic security through a drastic increase to the minimum wage and failing to offer a serious path forward on the very serious fiscal issues facing the country.”

Finally, the Coleman Report was sourced by ABC to fact check the president’s small business lending claims………….

According to Bob Coleman, editor of The Coleman Report, when tracking the numbers back to 1997, Obama is right.

However, if we look purely at number of loans not dollars given, he is wrong. Between 2009 and 2013, President Obama’s been in office, a total of 235,700 loans have been approved. And looking at 2004-2008, the Bush years, 443,433 loans were given.

One important point Coleman makes is to remember that the lenders who made these loans “lost their shirt and cut off their small loan program when the recession hit.”

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