Friday, March 5, 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. The event will be held at Longview Community College in Lee’s Summit in the Mel Aytes Education Center.
From McCaskill's web site:
"The all-day event is free and open to all small business owners interested in providing services or products to the government. McCaskill believes helping businesses and organizations learn how to access federal dollars through competitively-awarded contracts is an important step toward ensuring Missouri's economic development. At the workshop, representatives from federal, state, and local government agencies will present information through a number of presentation sessions, and business owners will also have the opportunity to talk individually with government officials."
Did you catch that? McCaskill believes that access to federal dollars is important to Missouri's economic development. Saddling generations of our progeny with gargantuan trillion dollar debt for which they will be enslaved is not important. Reduced regulatory burden from constricting federal bureaucracies is not important. Lower tax rates to relieve the economic burden from the backs of employers is not important.
Access to federal dollars is important, according to Claire McCaskill.
Perhaps, maybe, Sen. McCaskill simply felt there wasn't enough competition in the late night snake oil infomercial industry and thought it prudent for the federal govt. to enter in to provide more competition.
To lower costs, of course.
So, she hosts a workshop at a local community college. Who knew this was in a U.S. Senator's job description? Although, Sen. McCaskill is Chairman of the Subcommittee on Contracting Oversight, which is a necessary federal obligation when dealing with federal concerns, like the military, but her efforts on that august body mostly seem to be demonizing civilian LOGCAP contractors who provide vital services to our military throughout the world.
Yet, here, in Lee's Summit, far way from the concerns of the federal govt., McCaskill is going out of her way to encourage more contractors to belly up to the public coffers. Can she be certain those companies are up to her rigorous standards - unlike those evil LOGCAP contractors?
Perhaps she's simply being a pragmatic Senator from Missouri to encourage her constituents to go for the gusto of already appropriated - yet only 1/3 spent - $787 billion Porkulus funds. Or is she simply trying curry White House favor by peddling the new and improved $85 billion Porkulus II recently passed by Congress? Or is this workshop designed to promote the mired in red tape, $5 billion Cash for Caulkers program?
Either way, at least we can see McCaskill is at a real point on the map, with real people and real businesses, and the money hopefully will not disappear into phantom congressional districts (oops).
But I still don't understand why this micro-management is a U.S. Senator's concern. True, representatives from Missouri Procurement Technical Assistance Center (MO PTAC ) will be there. But isn't that what they're in business for? To educate small business on how-to navigate the byzantine world of govt. contract competitive bidding. And can't small business owners employ their services without a U.S. Senator holding their hand?
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) will also be there. They're an long established, federally funded program specifically designed to educate small business owners on how to start-up, grow and access money from the federal govt. - particularly in regards to minority owned businesses. Can't they do their job with out Claire's personal guidance?
Yet, even if one was totally clueless on how to start, a simple Ask.com search of "government competitive bid process" would turn up oodles of info to point you in the right direction. And let's face it, if you're not smart enough to locate this info for yourself, you probably have no business being in business for yourself. FYI.