No more help, please

By Stephen Fairfax
While the Billionaire Bailout was narrowly defeated Monday, its certain there will be more attempts to saddle all Americans with the bad debts of people who paid themselves $40 billion annually in dividends, plus massive bonuses, stock options (now worthless) and huge salaries.

As small business owners, my wife and I are fascinated by the concern shown by our political leaders for us and our colleagues. The dire warnings of the past few days frequently include phrases like "small business owners need credit to grow their business, send their kids to college, and save for their retirement." How one saves for retirement by borrowing is never explained. Others claim that small businesses will not be able to pay their employees if they don’t have access to easy credit.

Nearly all of these pronouncements come from people who know little or nothing about running a small business. Few Washington politicians have earned a single free-market dollar in honest commerce, and if they did it was generally long ago. Self-appointed "business leaders" are in fact little more than well-paid lobbyists for very large businesses that use government regulations and laws to place small business owners at a disadvantage. They do not speak for us or any small business owner we know.

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