Bailouts 'R Us

The Federal Government is now the money store. Financial companies get in line, they’re practically giving it away, even foreign banks will get a piece of the bailout pie. Small business people, we need to unite! When do we get our bailout? I would like the Federal Government to forgive the SBA loan used to purchase a franchise that, due to a series of unfortunate events, failed leaving us with mountains of debt. We accepted our lessons, licked our wounds and moved on pledging to pay down that debt while resigning ourselves to the enormous damper on our lifestyle for many years to come. We did not make any money or recognize any return on this investment; we took our knocks, plotted a new course of action and pressed on.

I know that our failure will not bring down world markets but it brought down ours. We were not greedy, we didn't overextend ourselves, we were not reckless and we worked very very hard. Sometimes things just don't work out but thankfully our prudent decision-making and prior savings allowed us to weather the financial setbacks that befell us. From our standpoint, the Wall Street bailouts, mortgage bailouts and other free passes are difficult to swallow. Besides struggling to pay for our own debt, we now have to pay for others. We know many small business-people; all are carrying a huge debt-load and struggling to make ends meet day-to-day. Where is their break? Where was ours?

America should forgive the SBA loans of small businesses that failed, are currently failing or are drowning in debt; this would help a lot and go a long way to helping another vital sector of the economy get back on their feet. So airlines, car companies, and others get in line…behind us.