{"id":7268,"date":"2006-04-28T12:59:30","date_gmt":"2006-04-28T16:59:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=7268"},"modified":"2006-04-28T12:59:30","modified_gmt":"2006-04-28T16:59:30","slug":"meet-the-new-sba-crony-same-as-the-sold-sba-crony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/meet-the-new-sba-crony-same-as-the-sold-sba-crony\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet the new SBA crony, same as the sold SBA crony"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Bush needed someone to head the Small Business Administration, he turned to [tag]Hector Barreto[\/tag], a former Republican fundraiser who had no experience or relevant qualifications<\/a>. The New Republic, with good reason, named him one of the administration’s top “hacks<\/a>.” As is usually the case with Bush’s partisan cronies, the SBA was mismanaged and slammed<\/a> for its poor performance, particularly in response to disaster loans.<\/p>\n

This week, Barreto resigned<\/a>, giving Bush the opportunity to find a more qualified nominee. True to form, the president went with another crony<\/a> instead.<\/p>\n

[tag]Steven Preston[\/tag], the little-known lawn-maintenance executive the White House tapped Tuesday to replace Hector Barreto at the helm of the [tag]Small Business Administration[\/tag] is stirring up some industry advocates. They say the Chicago businessman and Bush loyalist is no friend of theirs….<\/p>\n

[H]is resume shows he has no experience as an entrepreneur and comes from a company with a reputation as a bully among some small-business owners.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Preston is a self-described “committed Republican,” which apparently is the principal qualification for the job. Put it this way, Bush’s choice to head the Small Business Administration “does not have experience running a small business<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

What’s more, as Pensito Review noted<\/a>, the American Small Business League has come out strongly against<\/a> Preston’s nomination.<\/p>\n

“We don’t need another unqualified SBA Administrator,” stated Lloyd Chapman, President of the American Small Business League. “Hector Barreto’s dismal track record is a clear indication of what happens when you appoint someone that has no qualifications to run an important Federal agency. I’m afraid this nomination signals a continuation of the Bush administration’s intention to continue to dismantle the agency.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

[tag]Paul Krugman[\/tag] noted<\/a> today that recent history “shows that a president who isn’t serious about governing, who prizes loyalty and personal connections over competence, can quickly reduce the government of the world’s most powerful nation to third-world levels of ineffectiveness.”<\/p>\n

Krugman was referring to FEMA, but it’s a description that could apply to so many agencies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Bush needed someone to head the Small Business Administration, he turned to [tag]Hector Barreto[\/tag], a former Republican fundraiser who had no experience or relevant qualifications. The New Republic, with good reason, named him one of the administration’s top “hacks.” As is usually the case with Bush’s partisan cronies, the SBA was mismanaged and slammed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7268\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}