An Open Letter to President Obama

Dear President Obama,

You have asked for input and suggestions from small business owners. I have responded by writing four different letters to you from December to April. This time I am to writing an open letter and putting it in my blog. At least I will know that it will be read by someone. I am not sure about the other four.

The Economy:
As we see it there are a complex set of problems that you are well aware of. With all of the bad news, consumers are not spending. This is complicated with the policies that the banks have instituted. First they sent out tons of credit cards to the consumers. Then they raised the fees and interest rates on those cards to loan shark levels making it more difficult for the consumer to pay off the cards. When the cards were not paid off quickly the consumers credit scores were lowered. Now it is difficult for people to successfully apply for a loan because their score indicates that they are not a good risk.

Businesses have suffered with the drop in spending. Lines of Credit have been tightened or diminished. Small businesses are struggling to pay their rent and overhead. New small businesses are having difficulty finding places they can afford to rent. Commercial buildings are going vacant because the building owners have based the rent on an amortized amount from their mortgages, interest rates and taxes. Then there are the freight costs and the other energy costs with heating and power. Health care costs are also part of the equation. Have I missed anything?

You are working to get credit card regulation reform and a credit card bill of rights. That is phenomenally important. Please do not let the banking institutions water down that resolve. This one area, if corrected, will greatly improve the odds of people keeping their homes, their jobs and businesses. Working on the health care mess is the other big piece because it increases the cost of everything.

Energy:
I know of a man in Virginia who holds a patent on a terrific alternative energy generating system. It uses a waste product that we have an abundance of, yet the energy is clean. He is having difficulty obtaining sufficient funds to build the first plant.

MIT is working on a new form of battery that will be revolutionary and particularly useful with things like wind, geothermal and solar power.

Anyway, the point is, will there be ways of getting money for projects like these? It is American ingenuity at it’s best. I would love to see the power plant project get off the ground and bring jobs. I would also like to see our country get back on its feet and show our citizens and the world that we can be innovative and do great things.

Let me make myself perfectly clear. We are not asking for a handout. We are doing absolutely everything we can, to not only survive but to be vibrant, cutting edge businesses. Small business owners are an intrepid bunch. We need to be. We can not fix some of the problems that ail our country and economy. The lines of communication need to run both ways. We want to be heard….. and we want to help.