Ryan Streeter
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John Boehner gave a very good speech this afternoon to the Economic Club of Washington, DC.
The best line:
Job creators in America are essentially on strike.
There’s a lot to this statement. People have been talking for awhile (myself included) about how “uncertainty” keeps capital “on the sidelines” and entrepreneurs “on the bench.”
Sometimes the talk about uncertainty isn’t specific enough. The problem isn’t uncertainty per se. Rather, it’s uncertainty that stems from the fact that government doesn’t just issue countless regulations (though it’s certainly been doing that) or that it’s unclear what kinds of taxes and health care costs we’ll be shouldering in a few years (though it certainly is that, too), but that government is becoming more and more intrusive. And that intrusiveness is especially bad on smaller companies. When government intrudes on big companies, it’s usually to save them from their own foibles and mistakes.
In what should be Economics 101, but probably strikes the Obama Democrats like some kind of Zen puzzle, Boehner takes an obvious swipe at one of Obama’s jobs proposals and says:
Businesses are not going to hire someone for a $4000 tax credit if government mandates impose long-term costs on them that significantly exceed the temporary credit. In recent years, such mandates have been overwhelming.
He then goes on to say that small business have:
- been hurt by a government that offers short-term gimmicks rather than fundamental reforms that will encourage long-term economic growth.
- been hampered by a government that offers confusion to entrepreneurs and job creators when there needs to be clarity.
- been undercut by a government that favors crony capitalism and businesses deemed ‘too big to fail,’ over the small banks and small businesses that make our economy go.
- been antagonized by a government that favors bureaucrats over market-based solutions.
- been demoralized by a government that causes despair when we need it to provide reassurance and inspire confidence.
He then concludes:
My worry is that for American job creators, all the uncertainty is turning to fear that this toxic environment for job creation is a permanent state.
Unfortunately, there aren’t too many Democrats anymore who understand the psychology of enterprise in this way. Businesses don’t just “do business and make money.” They make decisions about whether and how to invest in people, new products, new ventures. If governments constantly signal that productive activity might (just “might,” not even “will”) be called into question and considered punitive, they’ll sit out new opportunity.
It’s happening every day, all around us. A few hours in the heartland talking to people at a Starbucks will drive the point home. I’ve done that. Others in Washington should give it a try, too.
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