I have talked to a lot of small businesses back in my home State of Maine. They, too, have a problem with accessing capital with the credit crunch.

Well, thank you very much for answering that question. And also thank you for your testimony today because this a very important issue when small businesses are the backbone of our economy.

I can tell you that if you told seniors or if you told Federal employees today, as you did, that you can change from 5 to 4 percent, it will protect your core benefit, there will be, quote, no change in current benefit levels, they would…

Do you think that this document is misleading to consumers?

This failure is certainly no model and it is no way to set an example for private sector employers to follow.

This is a real problem, and I must say I too think that the head of OPM should be here today.

The Federal Government should lead the way.

This is simply unacceptable, particularly given the fact that OPM began to recognize the real possibility of increases as early as 2003.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

But that is nowhere on this document.

I have to tell you that I thought that your testimony here today is as misleading as these marketing materials.

I also wanted to point out that there is a GAO study in the works, and it was first requested by Senator Snowe.

the increased loan size is something that has been a priority of Senator Snowe's for quite some time now

the Next Steps for Main Street, introduced by Senator Snowe

Senator Snowe realizes the importance of true parity among the programs and the detriment of fighting amongst the programs.

Senator Snowe is very concerned about some of the recent GAO decisions that created a super preference for HUBZones.

true parity requires an equal opportunity for all the programs to compete

She thinks that it is a critical program that does a lot of great work, and that none of the programs are immune to problems.