Lloyd Gordon's Blog

Lloyd Gordon noted restaurant consultant announced that he is NOW offering a FREE subscription to his popular newsletter to everyone in the Hospitality Industry. He says, “ I call it the news of The GEC’s Insider’s Info Club. Subscribers will be kept informed of what’s happening in the industry as well as suggestions of what you can do about it. In addition, I offer you ways to save money.” You can take advantage of this FREE publication with no strings attached by clicking here. You should receive your initial copy in your e-mail within a week.

The US Government says it hasn’t figured it out yet after two years but the truth be told there was a plan to help small businesses fight the recession. In 2009 the SBA was authorized to improve the lending requirements so small businesses could borrow needed funds to outlast the Great Recession. They reduced the down payments, and the guarantees were raised but the loans did not appear. What went wrong? Well, the banks that lend money were restricted to 2¾ points above prime but the banks refused to loan money unless they could get an additional 2%. Therefor, of the 30 billions of dollars earmarked for small business development only less than 10% of those funds have been spent by the SBA to date.

The proposal, known as the Small Business Lending Fund, originally would have taken $30 billion from the Troubled Asset Relief Program and diverted it to smaller banks. The move was supposed to stimulate lending. But the Banks were hesitant to take government funds for fear of after-the-fact program changes. Banks also asserted that there was little demand for loans so they had no guarantee they could find ways to lend the money once they received it. This proposal was the centerpiece of the administration’s pre-election plans to boost small businesses, which have been among the hardest-hit sectors since the onset of the financial crisis.
Unlike large corporations, small businesses don’t have access to the capital markets. They don’t issue debt to investors nor do they raise capital on stock exchanges. Instead, they rely on banks for their funding. Small community lenders and regional banks are their primary source of credit.
So believe it when I say the are not telling the truth that they have no plan.

WHAT TO DO NOW THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT THE BIG LIE?
Rise up all you entrepreneurs and march to your local banks and insist that they provide you with the paperwork you need to get this SBA money that is languishing waiting for them to request it from the USA so they can distribute it to you.

Lloyd M. Gordon

Roland S. Martin is a syndicated columnist and author of “The First: President Barack Obama’s Road to the White House.” He is a commentator for TV One cable network and host/managing editor of its Sunday morning news show, “Washington Watch With Roland Martin.”

When the U.S. Census Bureau reported last week that a record number of people were living in poverty, Republicans were quick to attach the figures to President Barack Obama, desperately trying to lay them at his feet.

But anyone with common sense knows that someone doesn’t just fall into poverty overnight. The deplorable economic conditions that led to today’s poverty numbers began in 2007. Republicans often ignore such facts.

Yet when you start digging deeper into the Census Bureau report, what stands out is that of the 10 poorest states in the country, most are the reddest in the nation — solidly GOP states.

The most impoverished state is Mississippi, and it’s followed by Arkansas, Tennessee, West Virginia, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, Kentucky, Alabama and North Carolina.

Obama won North Carolina by 14,000 votes in 2008, and although West Virginia is considered a Democratic state, but in presidential elections it usually goes for the Republican candidate. There is no doubt that in 2012, the GOP expects to lock up all 10 states in the presidential campaign.

Thus it would make sense that the GOP candidates would at least spend some time in the presidential debates debating the issue of poverty in these red states, and explaining what they plan to do about it.

Yeah, right.

At the June 13 CNN debate at St. Anselm College in Manchester, New Hampshire, the word “poor” was never uttered, and the only time poverty came up was when former Sen. Rick Santorum discussed his work for welfare reform.

At the September 17 debate at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley, California, Rep. Ron Paul brought up the poor, and that was in the discussion about getting rid of the minimum wage (he thinks it will lead to more jobs) and how he opposes welfare.

During the CNN/Tea Party debate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney managed to speak the word “poor,” but that was only when it came to America being an “energy-poor” country.

Republicans will quickly say that their economic agenda is the best way to get people back to work and a job is the best way to get people out of poverty. But it’s also true that the poverty issue extends beyond employment — to education and health care.

Voters in these traditional red states should be demanding that the GOP candidates banking on their votes say and do more than they are doing. Scarcely mentioning the poor or poverty is insufficient.

Maybe part of the problem is the poor don’t have lobbyists. There aren’t any Super Pacs being formed to raise millions of dollars to demand accountability on the issue. Even right-wing Christian leaders such as Ralph Reed and his Faith and Freedom Coalition are quick to condemn Obama’s plan to tax the rich but say nothing about the poorest states in the country, or even demand a poverty plan from the GOP candidates.

If I were a poor person in a red state, my primary issue would be which candidate, including Obama, speaks to my needs. If a candidate spends more time defending tax cuts for the wealthy and saying nothing about the poor, including the growing number of children on the poverty rolls, that candidate would be hard pressed to get my vote.

Lloyd M. Gordon