Small Business Owners Talk About Shutdown Impact: ‘This Is Unforgivable’

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2013/10/08/2751901/small-business-owners-shutdown/

Small Business Owners Talk About Shutdown Impact: ‘This Is Unforgivable’

By Bryce Covert on October 8, 2013 at 3:11 pm


When government operations came to a grinding halt last Tuesday after Congress was unable to pass a funding extension, the impact wasn’t just felt by federal employees who were furloughed or agencies that had to close their doors. Many small businesses have experienced a blow across the country. For one thing, loans from the Small Business Association can’t be approved without federal workers on the job, and the backlog once the government does re-open could be six weeks or longer. But many also count federal agencies as the majority of their clients and have had contracts stopped dead in their tracks. Others who don’t even work directly for the government have seen the uncertainty over the budget battles translate into a drop in sales and customers.

LaJuanna Russell is the founder and president of Business Management Associates, Inc., which is a human capital management and business process management consultancy that primarily works with federal clients. She had already had a “painful” year thanks to sequestration, she told ThinkProgress. “Sequestration was a major hit in the beginning of the year.” Her federal clients weren’t sure what their budgets would be and reduced spending, scaling back and even cutting some of her contracts.

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Her message for Congress? “They should be furloughed, they should not be paid, they should lose their health insurance.” She added, “This is unforgivable.”

Even those small businesses that don’t work directly for the federal government will be hurt too. Mike Brey is the owner of Hobby Works, a retail chain with five locations in Maryland and Virginia and 50 employees. “Sequestration and talk of the shutdown have been impacting us for a long time,” he said in an interview. Uncertainty among consumers, particularly federal employees who are heavily concentrated where he operates, has depressed consumption. “We’ve had a whole year of government workers not being really sure what the future holds and Congress has just made it worse,” he added.

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“For Congress to play these games, honestly, I find really frustrating,” he said. “Congress talked us out of an economic recovery. With {the shutdown} and the debt ceiling, they’re not satisfied with talking us out of a recovery. They want to talk us back into recession.”

[DJ13]

1. They want to talk us back into recession

More like a global depression.

[Hayabusa]

2. There is a former shopping center in my hometown

that is now home to mainly government buildings, though there are a few retail stores in it still. The USDA has a large office in it. In that mall is a branch of a local chain of submarine sandwich eatery. On the first day of the shutdown, with the USDA offices in the mall closed, that eatery lost half of their business.

[kestrel91316]

3. How many of these small business owners voted for teabagger representatives and senators?

Just curious. And they are probably the ones screaming loudest.

When you vote to end teh eeeeevil gubmint, that vote has consequences.

[Scuba]

4. No problem, the Koch Brothers don't need any loans.