Desperately seeking scandal

The Associated Press seems to think there is scandal in a federal loan program designed to help businesses and individual business owners recover from the effects of 9/11, largely because these loans went to people who did not live in New York City.

One story focuses on some of the Oklahoma businesses that benefitted. Note the disapproving tone in paragraph two:

A federal loan program created to help businesses recover from the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks has benefited a wide range of Oklahoma businesses, from restaurants to aircraft maintenance facilities, construction supply firms to makeup shops.

It has even provided money to start up Oklahoma businesses that did not exist when the terror attacks occurred four years ago.

Hmmm ... let's ask the musical question: was the economic damage of 9/11 limited solely to NYC?

Not exactly. The terrorist attacks deepened a recession that had begun late in the final Clinton term, kicked an already sickly stock market into a tailspin, devastated the airline industry (and a good part of Oklahoma that depends upon it), among other things. The program was designed to counter-act some of the effects of this economic harm. The inference that there is something wrong with the program is belied by the quotes later in the report.

"I consider it welfare for businesses," said Pat Salame, whose scaffolding and construction supply and equipment businesses received a total of $141,800 through the federal Small Business Administration's terror loan program.

Salame credited the low-interest, government-guaranteed loans for helping her businesses avoid foreclosure after the terror attacks in New York City and the Washington area.

"After 9-11, our volume fell off 50 percent. We're blessed to still be standing," Salame said.

...

Salame, credit sales manager of Waco of Oklahoma, Inc., said her company performed a lot of work at Oklahoma's military bases, including Tinker Air Force Base and Fort Sill, and cities and towns across the state prior to the terror attacks. Much of the work was halted afterward, she said.

"Everything just shut down. Everything was put on hold," she said. "It was bad. They were fixing to call our notes."

Or this testimonial:

Fred Martin, owner of Oklahoma Jet Works in Shawnee, secured a $530,000 loan under the program. Martin said his business, an aircraft maintenance firm housed at Shawnee's general aviation airport, was severely damaged when air travel was curtailed following the terror attacks.

"We were close to going out of business," said Martin, who said the money was used to build a new hangar. "It's helped quite a bit."

Maybe the AP should quit trying to massage the news in every article and go back to straight up reporting.