President Obama said today he is elevating the Small Business Administration to a Cabinet-level agen

[brooklynite]

President Obama said today he is elevating the Small Business Administration to a Cabinet-level agency. Details soon.

cnn.com

[think]

1. K&R for real change

[MinervaX]

2. I really don't see how this will accomplish anything.

Last edited Fri Jan 13, 2012, 03:37 PM - Edit history (1)

It will merely be co-opted by large corporations who will find loopholes to enrich themselves. Don't think a corporation can find a way to call itself a small business? They already call themselves persons.

[pnwmom]

7. Yeah, nothing Obama ever proposes means anything, right?

[emilyg]

10. Why don't you

tell us why this is good?

[pnwmom]

34. This means the SBA will have a seat at Cabinet meetings.

What would be wrong with that?

Unfortunately, there is another proposal that might not be as good for small business.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-small-business-20120114,0,733555.story

Reporting from Washington— Small businesses scored a victory when President Obama said the head of the federal agency that provides them with loan guarantees and other assistance would begin attending Cabinet meetings.

Karen Mills, who leads the Small Business Administration, "is going to make sure that small-business owners have their own seat at the table in our Cabinet meetings," Obama said Friday.

His announcement was welcomed by small business advocates. For more than three years, they had been urging Obama to elevate the SBA administrator to Cabinet rank, the same top status as in the Clinton administration.

But some worried that the enhanced voice for small businesses at the highest levels of the Obama administration could be short-lived because of another proposal to combine the agency with five others.

[emilyg]

35. Thanks.

[saras]

20. Small business needs to be separated from large corporations somehow...

...it may or may not be a good start.

But believers in Obama's chess ability might do worse than to hope it's a first step in figuring out how to separate the business America needs to survive from the corporate rule it can't afford.

[Gman]

27. This is a VERY good thing

A business that does up to (I believe) $2 million in revenue in a year qualifies as a small business. But $2 million is not a whole lot after salaries, overhead and misc expenses are paid.

But if this brings the focus on getting small businesses up to grossing $2 million or more a year, that'll benefit a whole lot of people with jobs.

So it's a good thing.

[Lint Head]

3. This will do nothing until it is illegal for major corporations and conglomerates

to use 'S' corporations to avoid paying taxes. That is a loophole that needs to be slammed shut for corporations that employee thousands and makes millions inflating prices then pays virtually no taxes. It is a subject that is hardly ever mentioned in the news.

An S corporation, for United States federal income tax purposes, is a corporation that makes a valid election to be taxed under Subchapter S of Chapter 1 of the Internal Revenue Code.

In general, S corporations do not pay any federal income taxes. Instead, the corporation's income or losses are divided among and passed through to its shareholders. The shareholders must then report the income or loss on their own individual income tax returns.

[jeff47]

12. Being an "S" corp doesn't reduce taxes. It just changes who has to cut the check. (nt)

[Sgent]

22. No publicly traded corps nor most large ones are Sub S

since there are so man restrictions on ownership (maximum of 99 owners, no foreign citizens / firms, no corporate ownership)

S Corps -- although there are some large ones -- are generally small to medium sized business owned by an individual, a few partners or family.

LLC's and partnerships actually have a much broader abilities to pass through income, and are becoming more popular (Chrysler is one for instance).

One final issue for any pass through entity is "phantom profits". These are accounting / book profits that may not result in cash, and even if they do, the cash may not be distributed to owners. Those owners wind up having to pay taxes on the entire profit even if they only receive a portion of it.

[Gman]

28. The taxes do get paid nevertheless

by the owners. The owners must be paid somehow. If its taxed at a lower rate, that's no big deal either. At least its being taxed. LLC's are usually structured similarly with the profits distributed to the owners according to their share and taxed as straight income by the owner.

And if the S structure, or LLC structure means profits are taxed at a lower rate then maybe the company could afford to expand and hire. That's a good thing too.

[XemaSab]

4. His SOTU speech a couple years ago

said he was looking for ways to merge agencies, not create new levels of bureaucracy.

[jpak]

5. He's making the government bigger!!1111

I wantg my coungtry back!!!!1111

[McCamy Taylor]

6. Suggestion: Make banks that got bailouts write small business loans?

[BlancheSplanchnik]

11. I like that idea

a LOT!

[Robb]

18. Oooooo. I like that a lot too.

[dkf]

21. Do we really want to force banks to make bad loans? Aren't they messed up enough with bad mortgages

[Robb]

26. SBA loans aren't "bad" by definition. Quite the opposite.

Favorable terms for SBA loan qualifiers would boost the chance of success for people with already sound and vetted business plans.

[dkf]

29. Banks are the ones not making SBA loans right now?

Didn't realize the banks do that. I thought the post was addressing non-SBA small business loans.

[kestrel91316]

8. Rearranging deck chairs.

[Kalidurga]

13. I like the new deck chair arrangement...

it is more feng shui.

[Sherman A1]

25. +1

[AngryAmish]

9. Why?

[harun]

14. Because there is an election this year.

[LanternWaste]

17. to reduce redundancy in the area of trade and commerce.

The proposal dates back to the president's 2011 State of the Union address, in which the president complained of government overlap and red tape that clogs the federal government, promising to tackle the problem. He injected a bit of humor into his speech to illustrate the point: "The Interior Department is in charge of salmon while they're in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them when they're in saltwater," he said to laughter. "I hear it gets even more complicated once they're smoked."

By late that year, however, officials shied away from forecasting when the president would fulfill his promise.

The White House announced early Friday morning that Obama would seek authority from Congress, not granted since the days of Ronald Reagan, to reorganize and consolidate portions of the federal government. His first proposal would be to reduce redundancy in the area of trade and commerce.

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/13/obama-seeks-consolidation-authority-to-merge-agencies/#ixzz1jMs2m9Ej



Seems to me to be, at wost, merely benign. But I'm not very clever about these things...

[truthisfreedom]

15. I have a feeling he's going in the direction of co-opting the only good part of what the rethugs

want to ram through, minimizing their ability to attack him for not being pro-business. His overall plan is to combine many agencies to reduce redundancy and save $3B in 10 years. I'm for it.

[MADem]

16. This is VERY important--why? Because small businesses HIRE PEOPLE.

I hope this increased representation will be helpful to them. They deserve a seat at the table, too.

[BadgerKid]

19. Good news on multiple levels.

1. Most importantly, a chance to invigorate the true small businesses.

2. End-run around Big Biz twiddling their thumbs while trying to extort tax cuts.

3. End-run around a Republican Congress, to the extent funding isn't cut from budgets.

4. Stealing the GOP's election thunder.

Looking forward to the GOP being given a "time out" for four, or more, years.

[dkf]

23. Good idea.

The deck is stacked against small business. We need to blunt the advantages big business has over small ones and I don't mind if the government is organized to enable this.

[OKNancy]

24. broklynite - in the future

please post a direct link to the story, not just cnn.com
I didn't find an article by this exact title on cnn, however readers who want to read a full article can find one here

http://www.cnbc.com/id/45989394
Obama Elevates SBA to Cabinet-Level Agency

I won't lock at this time.... just remember for the future.
Thanks, Nancy (LBN host)

[usrname]

30. Listening about this on Randi Roads

A great idea and unstoppable by the GOP, unless they're no longer for smaller government.

[byronius]

32. I am totally into this. Small business owner, here. Finally. This a great idea.

The SBA's been savaged since the original days of Newt.

[jmowreader]

33. Wait for it...

"That evil muslim with the radical Christian preacher is making the government bigger again! That's all Democrats ever do!"

Like there wasn't a Small Business Administration before, right?

[fasttense]

36. So what is a small business?

I looked it up at the SBA and it breaks out small businesses based upon the industry.

For example a financial institution can not have more than $150 million in assets to be considered a small business while a cattle rancher can not have more than $750,000 in assets to be considered a small business. Some industries are not defined by total assets but by the number of people who work for the business. For example an Industrial Sand Mining company can not have more than 500 people employed to be considered a small business while a Fats and Oils Refining and Blending company can not have more than 1,000 people employed.

I would not consider some of these small business definitions as small, while others I think are well defined.

A small sheep farmer can not have more than $750,000 in assets.

Here's the link if you want to look up what a small business definition is in your field.

http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=17a8b75b6d39a91bd4e087a6f4339059&rgn=div5&view=text&node=13:1.0.1.1.17&idno=13#13:1.0.1.1.17.1.266

[DCBob]

37. This makes sense and sticks it to the GOPers..

who keep harping about how important small business is in this country. They should applaud the President but they wont. They will probably claim is just more bureacracy and do more harm than good.

[Gringostan]

38. It's not a panacea;

It's not a panacea; but every step in the right direction is good...