SmallBusinessNewz

Well, we're officially a ways into the new year, and the National Small Business Association is trying to make sure that it is indeed a happy one.  This group has asked lawmakers to keep small businesses in mind if they try to address the recession by passing any more economic stimulus bills.

NSBA Chair Keith Ashmus said in a statement, "As each member of Congress participates in a swearing-in process today, I implore them NOT to forget about the folks back home, the small-business owners who are counting on them.  We deserve better than another taxpayer-funded bail-out that does nothing for the true creators of American job growth."

Specifically, the NSBA is looking for fewer SBA lending fees, more lending overall, and the end of self-employment tax on health insurance.  Also, it would have at least 23 percent of stimulus funds go to small business contracts and get the Small Business Innovation Research program reauthorized, among other things.

So there's some help that may be on the way.  A sort of prerequisite is for Congress to straighten out who is and isn't a member, of course, and the difficulties there are disheartening.

Along those lines, we should also, for the sake of completeness, mention one more fact that the NSBA shared: "according to a recent NSBA survey which will be released next week . . . [t]he number of small-business owners who believe the national economy is much worse off when compared with five years ago skyrocketed to 64 percent, up from 32 percent in August."