Small Businessmen And Local Government Employees

Rachael Larimore discusses the "You didn't build that" "controversy":

Quite apart from whatever taxes they pay, small-business owners are part of the very fabric of their communities. Someone has to run the pharmacy. Someone has to run the gas stations. Local businesses don’t send their profits back to Bentonville, Ark.; Minneapolis, Minn.; or Cupertino, Calif., but rather put them back into the community. The restaurant owner gets his produce and meat from local stores, the mechanic hires a local painter to spruce up his shop. They are the ones who not only give money to the athletic booster club and the PTA, but show up to help out at fundraisers.  And if that teacher who helped them with their math homework stops by, the owner gives her a free oil change or an extra slice of pie for dessert.

The president’s comment implies that business owners are ignorant of all the benefits they get from government. And it makes Obama’s supporters look unaware of all that government gets out of businesses and how political decisions affect entrepreneurs. Ask a business owner if they feel like they get more out of the government than they give. Sure, it helps that the city paves the road that was there for 20 years before they opened their business, and maybe they are grateful for that new traffic light. They understand that the local police protect their livelihoods. On the other hand, do politicians not appreciate that business owners match every dollar their employees contribute to Social Security and Medicare? Do politicians not understand when they are patting themselves on the back for raising minimum wage that somewhere, some shop owner is reaching for the ulcer medication while he weighs whether to raise prices, cut back employee hours, or rethink his hours of operation?

When the Republicans in state governments were slashing payments to local governments and criticizing public workers, was she pointing out that those folks also get their produce and meat from local stores, give money to athletic booster clubs and PTA, and show up to help out at fundraisers?  I've met very few rich public employees, but I've met a hell of a lot of rich small business owners.  Yet who gets criticized more for the wages they make or the benefits they are awarded?  Local is local, and school teachers, firemen, policemen and sewer workers are as much a part of making the community work as the businessmen.  I understand that some small businessmen feel like they are under attack, but you know what, so do a lot of local government employees.  We've completely overdone the government is always evil storyline, Republicans need to go back to the playbook and see what their party was saying pre-Ronald Reagan.  You know, when Republicans were communitarians. As it goes, I'm not losing sleep for businessmen "under attack."