Another Government Scam – Small Business Administration (SBA) is Exposed as Corporate Welfare to Big Businesses

Another Government Scam – Small Business Administration (SBA) is Exposed as Corporate Welfare to Big Businesses | Liberty Blitzkrieg:

Many people have noted that the more insidious or corrupt a law or agency, the more positive sounding its name. The most egregious example during my lifetime, was naming legislation that stripped Americans of most of their civil liberties the “Patriot” Act.

In a similar vein, which red-blooded American could ever be opposed to something called the Small Business Administration (SBA). We all love small businesses and the entrepreneurial spirit, and even those who abhor big government have a hard time siding against an agency that supports the little guy. As such, the SBA is the perfect vehicle for cronyism, corruption and corporate welfare, which indeed appears to be its primary reason for existence.

My friends at Open the Books have published a key study on the SBA, and the results are ugly. The full report can be found here, but what follows is some analysis of the report by Stephen Moore at Investors Business Daily:

The Small Business Administration is under fire for lending billions of taxpayer dollars a year to exclusive country clubs, golf resorts, yacht clubs, pet resorts, upscale plastic surgeons, wineries and other businesses catering to the lifestyles of the very wealthy.

A new report by the federal spending watchdog OpentheBooks.com has uncovered these and other questionable loan activities by the SBA and its roughly $106 billion loan portfolio.

It’s the latest in a long history of hard-to-justify lending activities by a federal agency that proclaims its purpose is to “help Americans start, build and grow businesses.”

The SBA has come under attack for gross misallocation of funds and even potential fraud. A 2008 inspector general report found 1-in-4 SBA loans involved improper payments.