Small businesses mixed about bailout

WASHINGTON, Oct. 1 (UPI) -- Acceptance of a federal bailout for Wall Street is mixed among owners of small U.S. businesses with many wondering what's in it for them, analysts said.

Many feel "Wall Street is being given a free ride," George Cloutier, chairman of American Management Services, told The Washington Post Wednesday.

"The way the bailout has been sold ... is that you are going to perish if you don't get this through and your credit is going to dry up overnight," he said.

Businesses owners relying on easy to obtain credit are worried.

"Our concern is with what would happen without the rescue plan, if capital does tighten up and continues to be hard to come by," John McEleney, the incoming chairman of the National Automobile Dealers Association, told the Post.

Banks asked Amber Sutton of Woodbridge, Va., to put her own home and stock portfolio up as collateral for a $400,000 loan to start a pet day-care business, the Post reported. She was also required to get a life insurance policy before the loan was approved.

"It was very difficult," Sutton said of the loan process. "Nobody turned me down ... but banks were a little more cautious."