The National Small Public Company Leadership Council to President Bush: Stop Using a Regulatory ``Meat Cleaver'' on Us!

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- The National Small Public Company Leadership Council representing small microcap publicly-traded companies and The Microcap Company Political Alliance Corp. (MCPAC), its political action arm in Washington, D.C. have a message for President Bush before this evening's State of The Union speech: Please listen to Bernie Marcus, founder of Home Depot, and STOP the government from using a regulatory "meat clever" on small entrepreneurial public companies struggling to raise capital.

According to Frank Speight, Chairman of both the Leadership Council and MCPAC, Bernie Marcus who started Home Depot back in 1978, was quoted in the Monday (1/30/06) issue of Investor's Business Daily newspaper as follows: "I'm not defending companies like Enron and Worldcom. But instead of using a surgical knife to protect the public from those companies, state and federal regulators are using a blunt meat cleaver. And this is one of the biggest threats to our free enterprise system, our capital markets and job creation."

"Bernie Marcus hit the nail right on the head with that statement," said Speight, who is also Chairman and CEO of American Capital Partners Ltd., Inc. (OTC:APRJ), a business development company specializing in the funding of startup companies and emerging growth firms. "America's small entrepreneurial public companies are being crushed under the government's regulatory meat cleaver when it comes to accessing capital and unfair legal rules. We want President Bush to contact Bernie Marcus and ask HIM if he would be able to start the Home Depot in the current legal and regulatory climate," stated Speight.

Speight said Bernie Marcus would answer you, Mr. President, as he did to Investor's Business Daily: NO. Here's what Marcus said to IBD: "I don't honestly believe we could. We went public after opening our fourth store because we needed the capital to open more stores. Going public and entrepreneurship were the keys to our success. If you're a public company today, you have to be surrounded with lawyers and you can't make a decision without a lawyer on one side of you and accountants on the other side. Today, you just can't use your business judgment to take the risks that must be taken for a new company to succeed. And one share value-killer lawsuit can kill a startup company. Back in 1978, those lawsuits were rare. Today, all you have to do is pick up a newspaper and read about one after another."

Speight said that the Leadership Council and MCPAC have met with White House staff, Members of Congress and the SEC about the government's regulatory "meat cleaver" approach regarding SEC Rule 504 and Sarbanes-Oxley. "We've gotten plenty of lip service from the government," said Speight, but little action. Meanwhile, the economy is slowing each month and my industry is struggling to raise the necessary capital to survive."

Marcus' IBD interview addressed some "solutions" to this regulatory problem facing small businesses and Speight enthusiastically endorses his statement: "Common sense legal reforms that fairly balance the interests of consumer and business and restore predictability to our tort system...Our representatives in Congress and state legislatures are decent people, but sometimes they don't understand the consequences of the laws they pass. Then there are state attorneys general who use the power of their office to make a name for themselves to seek higher office at the expense of the shareholders, employees and customers of the companies they savage in the media. The SEC is another story."

Speight went on to point out that Bernie Marcus' views about government overregulation and its devastating impact on entrepreneurs was best summed up in the IBD interview as follows: "The free enterprise system allowed an unemployed guy like me to succeed and in the process help create jobs at The Home Depot for more than 300,000 associates as well as millions of supplier jobs. I'm concerned for the next generation of entrepreneurs whose creativity, risk-taking and innovation are stifled by the current legal and regulatory climate. Will they be able to create the next Home Depot? I worry about this."

Are you listening President Bush?