When it Comes to Small Business, Obama Just Doesn’t Get It
The entrepreneurial spirit isn't halted by the specter of expensive health insurance. It simply finds a way.
Just when I thought President Obama couldn’t be any more out of touch with small business, his weekly radio address last weekend made me wish Ronald Reagan was around to say “there you go again” with a chuckle. The president’s misunderstanding of America’s entrepreneurs, from what makes them tick to what would really work for them on health care, is laughably profound.
It’s hard to laugh, however, at something so serious. Small businesses do need help when it comes to health insurance, and they are the most important job-creating sector of our economy. And the president paid lip service to these facts in his recent radio address, but his ideas about how his proposals might help small business and the economy are like public policy on acid — from mildly distorted to downright hallucinogenic.
President Obama says he hears from would-be entrepreneurs that losing the health insurance they get through their current jobs is a significant disincentive for them when they think about starting a business. And that some kind of guarantee on health care would encourage all of these people to start companies and create jobs! As a self-employed person who grew up in a small business family, this theory had me literally spit out my coffee. Although obtaining my own health insurance was a serious matter, it was about number 99 on my list of pros and cons surrounding my decision to leave my job and start my own enterprise. I called my father, another entrepreneur, for his reaction to the president’s claim. Dad started his land-surveying business 25 years ago when he was laid off from his job (a fairly common story among real small-business owners). He and his partners all took out second mortgages on their homes to start their business. Was it a struggle to start a business and buy health insurance for themselves and their families? Sure. Was it enough to sway their decision? No.
My father and I both had the same one-word reaction to the president’s perception of entrepreneurial motivation: bull.
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Jean Card is a freelance writer who lives in Alexandria, Virginia.
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23 Comments
1. Terry:I don’t know why you even listen to what Obama says – he just talks & talks, he’ll say just about anything if it sounds good. But, it’s all meaningless rhetoric, misleading, a cover for quite a different agenda. The man is a liar & a fraud, a con man, a slippery, fast-talking snake-oil salesman, intellectually shallow, narcissistic beyond belief, & not particularly competent.
Oct 11, 2009 - 1:38 am 2. Howiem:When you say he doesn’t “get it”, you are being far too kind to the Karl Marx prodigy in the White House. It has nothing to do with “getting it”. It has to do with destroying the entrepreneurial spirit and making it as difficult for anyone to be entrepreneurs. There’s an old Asian expression that “the nail that sticks out must be hammered back in”. Entrepreneurs stick out. And guess who the hammer is? He wants to make us all equal, equal pay, equal work, equally obedient. Entrepreneurs will be considered the dissenters, because they do not like being controlled. Obama’s dream is to control. His dream is a free man’s nightmare. He has done nothing to date that indicates that he has any interest in doing abything about entrepreneurs other than making sure they will not survive under a maelstrom of taxes and controls. If you think about cap and tax, health control, Internet controls, and other pending legislation, they will add an enormous tax burden, and not only to the wealthy. Have you noticed Pelosi now talking about a VAT….don’;t bet that it will replace income taxes or other taxes…it will be on top of them. This is only the tip of the iceberg. With Obama one has to watch what he does, not merely listen to what he says, unless you have time to listen to everything, analyze it all and understand that he is a trained liar. Note how he talks as if he knows what is in the health control bill before it is written. hat is because Reid and the other Alinskys will put in what he wants and screw the American people. So it should not be “doesn’t get it”, rather doesn’t give a R.A.
Oct 11, 2009 - 4:25 am 3. cedarhill:Corporatism doesn’t favor small businesses. Either be absorbed by government or by the favored businesses. F
Oct 11, 2009 - 5:25 am 4. Poor Citizen:Once again, you and right make a serious error of judgement when it comes to democrats and Obama.
Small business’s have for years, been begging for health care reform. The republicans have ignored their plea at their perile. The right wing must learn to distinguish what small business wants is not exactly like what their paymasters (big business) want. Thes folks have small, family run business’s and want relief and assistance to offer their employees (mostly middle to lower income workers), affordable, accessable health care and Republicans are fighting against them. It is a real shame.
Oct 11, 2009 - 5:58 am 5. Richard:Guess what… the republicans don’t get it either.
Just today I had to suffer through a TV ad telling me how Orrin Hatch is so wonderful because he’s been lobbying for government spending for old folks.
WTF?
When will these republican doofus heads wake up?
Oct 11, 2009 - 6:20 am 6. Mary Jackson:Of course he doesn’t get it. What would a “community organiser” know about small businesses?
Like all socialists – UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown is a case in point – he has no idea about real work.
Oct 11, 2009 - 6:56 am 7. BackwardsBoy:This is just one of the many things Obama doesn’t understand about America. His entire life has been spent surrounded by fringe radicals, not the hard-working, self-sufficient majority most of us know. He only has an idea of what entrepreneurs are like, such as one gets from watching a movie about something or someone you don’t really know. His view from high overhead misses details that are crucially important to making effective decisions for his fellow countrymen.
Oct 11, 2009 - 7:50 am 8. Yo Ski:But then again, superficiality is the best way to describe the Obama regime. Appearance is what’s important, not action or results.
I disagree. Present Obama does get it. That is why he nationalized GM, Chrysler and the banks. That’s why he lets the dollar fall, attacks entrepreneurial ship, free markets energy independence, and plus 32 radical left czars (actually commissars, there can only be one Czar, Obama). The Democratic Party wants trillion dollar deficits, trillion dollar health care, and other trillion dollar programs coupled with trillions in taxes precisely because they know it will collapse the free market system, just like they did with the crafted sub-prime mortgagee debacle. President Obama and the Democratic Party aim to create a new economy based on green technology, green energy, equality and social justice for all…just like Lenin. Obama gets it, we don’t.
Ski
Oct 11, 2009 - 7:53 am 9. SBOwner:Our small business (15-20 employees, 2 million gross income)has provided high end group health insurance for 25+ years. Would we like lower insurance rates? The quest never stops. Would we prefer not to be forced to garnish wages for the employees who “forget” to pay child support or taxes? Thereby providing free administrative work to the government. What do you think? Would we want to be forced to provide health insurance for our employees who refuse it? Guess who will garnish their wages for the fine of not having health insurance? Would we like lower workman’s comp rates? Would we like a Workman’s Comp Board not composed of bleeding heart – pass out some “free” money types? Would we like lower tax rates? Would we like not to hire accountants? Would we like not to do mountains of paperwork every year to pay taxes and fees to the state? Would we like not to work lots and lots of hours and hours to make a middle class living? Are we envious of high paid stars, athletes, politicians, drug lords or lottery winners? Probably not. Would we like to have more time “off” from work? What planet do you think we live on? Do we struggle with cash flow and accounts receivable and payable? You betcha!
Is this small taste of being a “free” people worth all this? Watch an episode of Deadliest Catch. The salt spray is intoxicating.
Which lever would you prefer we pull in the voting booth?
Would we listen to your politicized comments about this article? Go get a real life. Better yet, start a business and provide for your employees and their families as best you can and inspire them to be the best they can be -after you teach them about capitalism and a profit motivated society before its too late. Will our small company one day change the world? This is not even on our radar. Our research department is our guts.
Have we worked for the man in our prior lives? You bet we have. Was it our motivation to own a company? Nope. This IS our pursuit of happiness. It is our right to fail or succeed on our own terms. What do you think Live Free or Die means in real terms? Is there a conflict between freedom and unlimited goverment? Are human rights inalienable or not? If we were operating under the table would we be free men or fugitives?
In the interim, its Sunday. Church, family, rest and prayers for our employees, especially the ones working today to fulfill some scheduling promises (and earn some overtime pay). Will the owners work today? Probably. Do we pay ourselves overtime? What do you think?
Oct 11, 2009 - 9:01 am 10. Professor Guvinoff:You start your business because you found the courage to confront risk and you have the work ethics to build up the confidence of your customers, not because the government professes a desire to help you. Just about the only thing the government can do is get in the way. The SBA loans are not business loans, they are real estate loans you may qualify for if you want to buy the building you work in instead of renting it. They miss their declared target, and shoot at something else, for political benefit instead of business support.
The only exception I have seen was my local government offering a seminar to learn how to handle export licenses and obtain international letters of credit. Fortunately, they had the good sense to hire a private expert to lead the class, and we all learned what we needed to know. Smart governement is possible, when it delegates its services to private talent!
I always bought the best medical insurance I could get for my employees. All I could have asked for was lower premiums, and this is not what a government takeover of the health care can do. On the other hand, government can change the tort laws to eliminate their abuse, and promote good old fashioned competition among insurance providers capable of reducing cost because they are bound to the profit making imperative, not by government entities with the freedom to divert money in all kinds of unproductive directions for all kinds of crazy excuses.
Just lower taxes for businesses large and small and eliminate counterproductive regulations, and job creation will increase immediately, because new opportunity creates new jobs (as well as new entrepreneurs). It’s not rocket science. It’s common sense.
Mr. President climb down from the white horse, and get to work.
Oct 11, 2009 - 9:05 am 11. Drew:We’re talking here about someone who never worked an actual job in his life (and still hasn’t), has always survived on government largesse, cannot understand a world outside the beltway (unless it’s the Hyde Park Neo-Comms Klub) . . . there’s no reason to be surprised at his complete lack of understanding when it comes to small business.
The spit-take that nearly choked me was his claim that his healthcare reform bill would help small businesses. I have to ask if there is any sector of the economy that he thinks wouldn’t benefit from his healthcare reform bill. He has so completely tied his legacy to healthcare reform that he seems incapable of addressing any other issue. And his approach to the healthcare issue is to let the dolts on Capitol Hill run the show. This man is not only naive, he has fatal tunnel vision.
Oct 11, 2009 - 10:17 am 12. goy:Jean, this is an excellent synopsis of BHO’s risible ignorance (as he’s portrayed it) of small business, entrepreneurship and health care, combined.
But you missed a golden opportunity here.
I laugh every time I see someone abuse the term “reform”, like up above in #4. “Reform” in the context of health care is just the code word for socialized medicine, which is specifically NOT what small businesses have been asking for. Small business owners know that they and their businesses will be the ones taxed the hardest if socialized medicine ever becomes a reality. That’s not the “reform” they have in mind.
Small business would benefit enormously if essentially ‘free’ health care – in the form of employer-paid, group comprehensive health care insurance – were no longer seen as an “entitlement” tied to employment OR citizenship. Insurance is not health care, and small business owners know this.
The reform most desperately needed in the U.S. is to bring the cost of routine health care itself back down into equilibrium with other routine costs of living. With routine health care costs themselves reduced, people will no longer be so easily duped into thinking that all health care should be paid for through an insurance policy, which is the most insane way to pay for ANY cost of living – especially when it involves a socialist, collectivized payment system that “spreads the cost around” (sound familiar?) like what we have today in group comprehensive insurance.
Promoting competition between insurance providers is NOT going to bring the cost of health care down. The insurance market is not the health care market and competition in the former isn’t going to affect cost reductions in the latter. That is because, again, insurance is not health care.
Insurance, in fact, is a tool for mitigating financial risk. Routine health care poses no financial risk, but we are collectively duped into believing that it does. Government meddling has encouraged the cost of ALL health care to skyrocket – first through market distortion via Medicare, then further market distortion via HMOs, then even greater distortion by encouraging employer-paid, group comprehensive insurance through tax incentives, which is precisely the opposite of what’s needed in order to bring the cost of health care down. ALL of these things have had the effect of causing health care costs to increase at rates much higher than inflation, beginning in the late 60s. Government distortion of the health care market is the cause of high health care costs. Government distortion of the energy market has done the same, and will get much, much worse if allowed to implement cap-and-tax-and-spend policies based purely on junk science.
Because it is government’s nature to seek increasing control over the governed, it will never pursue true reform of its own volition. All government “solutions” to health care problems have been to increase citizens’ dependency on government and increase taxation (federal revenue). All government “solutions” have encouraged health care costs – including insurance – to increase, thereby increasing the risk to small business.
There’s a straightforward way to resolve both of these issues – health care and waning incentives for entrepreneurship – but they require that we stop deluding ourselves into believing that insurance is health care; they require that we stop looking to government to solve market problems; they require working to bring health care costs down and eliminate comprehensive group insurance as a mechanism for funding a routine cost of living.
Oct 11, 2009 - 11:13 am 13. vech:Obama doesn’t get America.
Oct 11, 2009 - 11:54 am 14. Liz:This is a great article. You couldn’t be more right on. BO knows nothing about the private industry let alone running a small business. All of his healthcare plans are going to kill small business. Thank you for this great piece.
Oct 11, 2009 - 2:08 pm 15. Kriska:Great posts folks…it’s always good to hear from other small business people. Obama has no clue about small business (or anything, if the facts be known.
In my situation, I pay out the wazoo for health insurance and it covers very little. Is that my main concern as to how to pay or to stay in business? No! I’m scared to death trying to find the money to pay my TAXES! Sure my premiums are high and you would think I would be a cheerleader for “free” healthcare/reform, but as a business person I know the reality..nothing is free…just higher taxes!
Oct 11, 2009 - 2:41 pm 16. Owner that has had it:As a small business owner I know that the socialists currently running this country don’t get it. I don’t offer health, never and never will. What I do is pay my workers enough that they can afford health care on their own is they want to. It is up to them to take responsibility. I don’t have it myself. Instead I created a savings account at the credit union for health care. I have more on interest then I have used. You’d be surprised how much doctors like cash and the discounts you can get. The shop is also union free. It has been told that any unionization will result in the instant closing of the shop. That stance has lead to being sabotaged and black listed do to the unions. Some call me a slave driver who hates those that work for me yet there is a line to work for me, turn over is very low and moral is high. This health scam and the tax and cap scam if passed will see my company closed. I am taxed more then enough already and can wait for a more favourable environment. If you think the economy is bad now just wait until the hyper-inflation kicks in. Hopefully real conservatives can gain control in 2010 and undo some of this clustertrap.
Oct 11, 2009 - 4:31 pm 17. homero:obama doesn’t give a sh!t about anyone but himself.
great piece …just no hope of change in the narcissist also known as the president
Oct 11, 2009 - 4:38 pm 18. homero:12. goy
agreed
Oct 11, 2009 - 6:15 pm 19. myth buster:The upside is that according to the National Debt Clock, Americans are paying off private debt and saving just fast enough to fund the Federal Deficit. Unfortunately, it doesn’t cover State and Local deficits, or the promises made on entitlement programs.
Oct 11, 2009 - 7:21 pm 20. Concerned Citizen:#16 got it about right. What people really need is insurance…a way to pay for catastrophic health bills. Instead, they have a benefit, where “it’s all free and paid by someone else”. THAT ISN’T INSURANCE!!! It’s a benefit.
If you really think this through, why would you pay the overhead of an insurance company to pay your doctor for an office visit? The right thing is to pay cash for everything. Send a message to the banks, insurance companies and government that WE’VE HAD IT!!!
Oct 11, 2009 - 10:09 pm 21. Topkik:You are missing it. This is not about small business or health care. Obama is right on HIS agenda..taking control of everything.His program is carefully and is being enacted as pre-arranged before Jan. 20th. That is the scary part of all of this. He is right on schedule!
Oct 11, 2009 - 10:18 pm 22. Anne Marie:Thank you and God Bless you for speaking on behalf of small business people who are generally very busy running their businesses and don’t take the time to make their case to the public.
Poor Citizen: YOU ARE FULL OF CRAP!!! Or as Joe Wilson might say, YOU LIE!
Oct 13, 2009 - 6:19 am 23. real business owner:PoorCitizen Libtard….obviously you DON’T own a small business. Dope. We (bus. owners) don’t want govt. anything. We offer insurance as an employment pkg. to our workers. Govt. Obamacare (may God save us from that) will negate that incentive. But libtard..that’s the point. Obama Hates small business. Only a moron and libtard like you and O would think we’d ever hire anyone, pay them 40K for a 3K kickback from the snake-oil salesman, Obama.
Oct 13, 2009 - 7:07 pm