29.6 million US small businesses drive the nation’s innovation – WALL STREET JOURNAL Article

WALL STREET JOURNAL — Crashing the White House Jobs Summit
Small Business Has Been Left Out of the Recovery, Maybe That’s Why There Are No Jobs
By DAVID WEIDNER
Dec. 3, 2009

Michaele and Tareq Salahi shocked the nation last week, when they illustrated how alarmingly easy it may be to gate-crash the President’s home, but as small business owners they also accomplished something else few have been able to do: get attention from the White House.

Government aid to small businesses has lagged badly since the financial crisis began in earnest 20 months ago. In the 10 months since President Obama took office, his administration has worked hard through bailouts and incentives to preserve the advantage of big business interests, many times at the expense of small competitors.

That’s why as business and labor leaders gather Thursday at the White House, someone or something needs to crash the event and make a case for the nation’s small business community. Small businesses are the engine to any economic recovery. Now that we’ve stabilized the mammoth, but impotent, auto and financial industries, maybe it’s finally time for lifting up instead of propping up.

Two Standards
Consider that as Citig