Our President does not understand American businesses
by Ron Laughery
Thanks to the electoral college system, Colorado could decide the next President of the United States, and Boulder voters matter. Without the 70% vote for Obama from Boulder/Denver voters in 2008, Colorado would have gone red. How we choose this November will affect the course of our nation in the coming years.
A big, and maybe the biggest, issue in November is getting American businesses to invest and hire again. America needs jobs and a sense of renewed prosperity and the root of both lies in American commerce. Without a healthy and motivated private sector, companies don’t hire and citizens can’t pay the taxes that fund government.
I shared America’s optimism that Candidate Obama’s message of hope and change was for all Americans. However, over the past 3+ years, I’ve observed a President who lacks a basic understanding of what makes American businesses tick and who seems uninterested in finding out. If you don’t know how something works and aren’t willing to seek the advice of those who do, you can’t fix it.
The warning flags went up before Inauguration Day. Even though the President lacked any background in the private sector, many of us assumed that he would surround himself with smart people who understood American business. Instead, he built a Cabinet without a single person with significant private sector experience. From the start, his inner circle lacked anyone who had ever had to meet payroll or make a profit.
The administration’s ignorance became apparent during the 2009 stimulus bill debates. To the business community, the President’s ideas for increasing private investment and hiring seemed naive. For example, he proposed a $5,000 tax credit for new hires. Anyone who has ever run a business knows that you don’t hire people for a tax credit – you hire people because you need their help providing goods and services to a market. In the end, the stimulus did nothing substantial to encourage business investment in America.
Things deteriorated further with the Dodd-Frank bill. Without doubt, we had to update America’s financial regulations using what we had learned in 2008. But, the bill signed by the President seemed to learn nothing and, instead, rested on the assumption that government bureaucrats would henceforth be omniscient about the source of future financial crises. So, instead of eliminating “too big to fail,” we institutionalized it in a 2,300 page law loaded with regulations still waiting be written by unelected committees. Two years of uncertainty and confusion have businesses still scratching their heads instead of investing in America.
Things started getting really scary when the President started preaching on the evils of “excessive risk taking” by businesses. When American business stops taking risks, we will wither on the vine faster than you can say “iPhone.”
However, it started to look like what the President really meant was that the government was better at deciding which risks businesses should take when he assumed the role of Venture Capitalist-in-Chief for America’s green energy sector. America needs green energy, but the President has thrown away billions of taxpayer dollars in demonstrating why private markets are infinitely better than governments at understanding the risks involved in building green energy businesses. It’s not clear if he has learned this lesson yet.
I suppose the end of hope for me was after the 2010 election when the President decided to blame much of the poor economy on the greed of America’s “millionaires and billionaires.” The potential for reward is what motivates the risk taking behind the Apples, Googles, and Boeings. But, the President’s over-the-top demonization of successful businessmen and women has become the norm, like his referring to Mitt Romney as a greedy business “vampire.” Nice touch.
So, we have a President who shows no interest in understanding American business, lacks faith in private sector’s ability to assess the risks they might take, and who seems to think that people in business are undeserving of the rewards they receive when their ideas and efforts turn into products that the world wants to buy.
And we wonder why American businesses aren’t expanding and hiring?
America has always welcomed the animal spirits of American businessmen and women who are the wellspring of our prosperity. Businesses want to work with government to provide an environment that encourages commerce while creating a strong middle class to buy their goods and services. But, government can’t do their part if they are led by someone who has no interest in how business works.
[email protected]
Thanks to the electoral college system, Colorado could decide the next President of the United States, and Boulder voters matter. Without the 70% vote for Obama from Boulder/Denver voters in 2008, Colorado would have gone red. How we choose this November will affect the course of our nation in the coming years.
A big, and maybe the biggest, issue in November is getting American businesses to invest and hire again. America needs jobs and a sense of renewed prosperity and the root of both lies in American commerce. Without a healthy and motivated private sector, companies don’t hire and citizens can’t pay the taxes that fund government.
I shared America’s optimism that Candidate Obama’s message of hope and change was for all Americans. However, over the past 3+ years, I’ve observed a President who lacks a basic understanding of what makes American businesses tick and who seems uninterested in finding out. If you don’t know how something works and aren’t willing to seek the advice of those who do, you can’t fix it.
The warning flags went up before Inauguration Day. Even though the President lacked any background in the private sector, many of us assumed that he would surround himself with smart people who understood American business. Instead, he built a Cabinet without a single person with significant private sector experience. From the start, his inner circle lacked anyone who had ever had to meet payroll or make a profit.
The administration’s ignorance became apparent during the 2009 stimulus bill debates. To the business community, the President’s ideas for increasing private investment and hiring seemed naive. For example, he proposed a $5,000 tax credit for new hires. Anyone who has ever run a business knows that you don’t hire people for a tax credit – you hire people because you need their help providing goods and services to a market. In the end, the stimulus did nothing substantial to encourage business investment in America.
Things deteriorated further with the Dodd-Frank bill. Without doubt, we had to update America’s financial regulations using what we had learned in 2008. But, the bill signed by the President seemed to learn nothing and, instead, rested on the assumption that government bureaucrats would henceforth be omniscient about the source of future financial crises. So, instead of eliminating “too big to fail,” we institutionalized it in a 2,300 page law loaded with regulations still waiting be written by unelected committees. Two years of uncertainty and confusion have businesses still scratching their heads instead of investing in America.
Things started getting really scary when the President started preaching on the evils of “excessive risk taking” by businesses. When American business stops taking risks, we will wither on the vine faster than you can say “iPhone.”
However, it started to look like what the President really meant was that the government was better at deciding which risks businesses should take when he assumed the role of Venture Capitalist-in-Chief for America’s green energy sector. America needs green energy, but the President has thrown away billions of taxpayer dollars in demonstrating why private markets are infinitely better than governments at understanding the risks involved in building green energy businesses. It’s not clear if he has learned this lesson yet.
I suppose the end of hope for me was after the 2010 election when the President decided to blame much of the poor economy on the greed of America’s “millionaires and billionaires.” The potential for reward is what motivates the risk taking behind the Apples, Googles, and Boeings. But, the President’s over-the-top demonization of successful businessmen and women has become the norm, like his referring to Mitt Romney as a greedy business “vampire.” Nice touch.
So, we have a President who shows no interest in understanding American business, lacks faith in private sector’s ability to assess the risks they might take, and who seems to think that people in business are undeserving of the rewards they receive when their ideas and efforts turn into products that the world wants to buy.
And we wonder why American businesses aren’t expanding and hiring?
America has always welcomed the animal spirits of American businessmen and women who are the wellspring of our prosperity. Businesses want to work with government to provide an environment that encourages commerce while creating a strong middle class to buy their goods and services. But, government can’t do their part if they are led by someone who has no interest in how business works.
[email protected]