Maybe Obama could invite all the contractors they stiffed during the building process.

It is sub-contractors, not contractors, that small businesses are complaining about not being paid.

I’m not an attorney nor have I worked in construction. However, when we had our kitchen redone a while back, we hired a contractor to do the job. The contractor, in turn, hired sub-contractors to do specific tasks (install a wood floor, put the marble countertop in, etc.). We had a schedule to pay the contractor and that’s exactly what we did according to the contract terms. The contractor had contracts with sub-contractors. It was the contractors responsibility to pay the sub-contractors, not ours.

Having said that, if the stories are accurate, I think Obama should be leaning on the contractor to pay the sub-contractors. Of course, the actual wording of the contracts will be the final say, in theory.