Fred Weinberg: The Small Business Administration Cannot Be Trusted
It appears to me that the Small Business Administration is just another part of the Trump-hating deep state.
When the CARES Act was finally passed (thank you Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi), we read the whole book.
Short version was that Congress had appropriated $350 billion for forgivable loans to small businesses to keep employees on their payrolls. And they gave the money to the SBA with instructions to have banks get it out immediately.
What could go wrong?
Indeed.
Let’s see…
The first noise came from the Bank of America, which the taxpayers bailed out in the last financial crisis to the tune of more than $120 billion.
They (the royal they) told us that in order to be eligible for the paycheck protection loan, you had to have not only an account there but a lending relationship with that fine, taxpayer-bailed-out institution. We bank there but we’ve never borrowed any money from them. So, before the B of A felt the pressure and changed their minds, we sent our application through a local credit union we do some business with.
That happened a short time after the opening bell.
Guess what? As we write this, nobody we know has been funded.
What could go wrong?
Well, start with the SBA. It was chartered by Congress in 1953 to “aid, counsel, assist and protect, insofar as is possible, the interests of small business concerns.”
That’s a fancy way of saying “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you.”
Here’s the problem with that: The SBA is run by “administrators” as opposed to people who have actually run small businesses. Most people who run small businesses have not had the experience of being well and reliably paid no matter the circumstances. So when the bureaucrats say they will do something quickly, they actually believe the truth is being told.
However, when Washington promises something, there are two kinds of truth: the real truth and the deep-state truth. When the real truth turns out to be not so true, the deep staters then say, “well, running a government is like running an aircraft carrier and nothing ever happens quickly.”
Right.
The problem here is that people who run small businesses think that when they are told something, they are being told, well, the real truth.
But the real truth is not what Washington expects you to believe.
What makes the SBA different from the Russia and impeachment hoaxes?
It’s not as heavy handed but — for small businesses — just as deadly where productivity is concerned.
Many — not all — of the financial institutions are acting as if it is some kind of a burden upon them to pass out money to their actual customers.
That great sucking sound could and should be President Trump removing his boot from official derrieres.
Go get ’em, Mr. President. They work for you. Make ’em work.
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