PETALUMA, Calif., Oct. 17, 2013 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In 1985 President Ronald Reagan recorded a glowing TV spot on the great work at the Small Business Administration (SBA) and then did a complete 180 and pushed hard to permanently close the agency. Reagan's budget director David Stockman sparred with members of Congress insisting the SBA be closed.

The SBA is one of the smallest agencies in our government and yet for almost 30 years, some of the most powerful forces in the country have unrelentingly pushed for its closure.

When George W. Bush was elected president he made the task of closing the SBA by the end of his first term one of the top priorities of his administration. During his administration, the SBA budget was cut by almost 50 percent and the core of the agency was laid off. The SBA layoffs were specifically targeted at SBA staffers that were involved in contracting programs.

There have been dozens of federal investigations and investigative reports by the media documenting the systematic diversion of federal small business contracts to many of the largest corporate giants in the world, including Fortune 500 firms.

When Obama was running for president, he acknowledged the magnitude of the fraud and abuse at the SBA and released the statement on his campaign website, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."

Despite President Obama's campaign promise to end the diversion of billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts to corporate giants, the rampant fraud and abuse in federal small business contracting programs has only gotten worse.

Information the SBA was forced to release to the American Small Business League in September showed 235 Fortune 500 firms had received federal small business contracts last year.

In November of 2008, I predicted President Obama would resurrect Ronald Reagan's plan to permanently close the SBA by combining it with the Department of Commerce. He proved me right in January of 2012 when he announced his plan to do exactly that.

Reagan called combining the SBA and the Department of Commerce, "closing the SBA." President Obama learned "closing the SBA" is extremely unpopular with Congress and the public. He renamed Reagan's plan from "closing the SBA" by combining it with the Department of Commerce to "streamlining government" and "combining agencies." Not one journalist in America has reported on President Obama's plan to permanently close the only tiny agency in government to assist the 28 million small businesses that are responsible for over 90 percent of net new jobs in America.

Federal law requires a minimum 23 percent of the total value of all federal contracts be awarded to small businesses. That's over $100 billion a year. Big greedy, corrupt and all-powerful government defense contractors wanted that money. They lobbied and bribed Congress and government officials into passing illegal policies that have allowed every federal agency in Washington to count billions of dollars in contracts to Fortune 500 firms as small business contracts.

The supposed random anomalies, errors and miscoding always divert federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms and artificially inflate the actual dollar volume and percentage of federal contracts actually awarded to legitimate small businesses, but never the other way around.

So, here is the real reason President Obama wants to close the SBA. The excuses that Fortune 500 firms are the actual recipients of most federal small business contracts as a result of anomalies and miscoding has run its course. It's worked for over a decade. Not one journalist in 10 years has ever asked any government official why these random anomalies always divert federal contracts away from legitimate small businesses and into the hands of the largest and most powerful corporate giants in America.

For the latest video from the ASBL, click here.

SOURCE American Small Business League