Big Business and Big Government: Let the Apathy Olympics Begin!

“Nothing that Obama has proposed, that Geithner has enacted or that Krugman has cheerleaded has meant a damn thing for small businesses in the US.”

My clientele is nationwide and the vast majority are business owners.  They represent every industry, every region in the country and every political persuasion.  When I relay the sentiment on The Street about how the ISM or the ABC or the XYZ survey is indicating an economic recovery, they are completely at a loss as to what recovery I could possibly be talking about.

This is becoming a farce, with the punchline being the small business owner and his employees.  CNN is reporting that President Obama’s upcoming Jobs Summit will be featuring Disney Chief Bob Iger and Google CEO Eric Schmidt, two guys who wouldn’t understand the plight of the independent businessman if they tripped over it on the way to the executive washroom.

With the majority of the administration’s efforts being driven toward coming to the aid of the Fortune 500 and keeping the union/bureaucratic machinery humming at level 10, it’s no wonder we’re staring 20% under-employment right in the face, a year into Obamanomics 101.

How much longer small business will be ignored remains to be seen, but judging by Obama’s guestlist for the event, I wouldn’t be too excited for the epiphany we all know must come for the bleeding to stop.

Let me spell it out for those in the administration who think that higher stock prices are their report card:

CUT TAXES FOR SMALL BUSINESS NOW.  AND GIVE TARP MONEY TO SMALL BUSINESS, TOO.  YESTERDAY.

Small businesses account for HALF the jobs in this country and they have been absolutely trampled in both the recession and the so-called recovery.  While big oil and big tech and big manufacturing are “playing” the dollar carry trade and deriving huge sales and profits from overseas, the provincial business owner can do nothing but watch.  For many, exporting is out of the question logistically or doesn’t translate based on what the company makes or does.

Banks are hoarding and not lending, state governments are using federal stimulus cash to pay down debt, consumers are stampeding Wal-Mart and TJ Maxx for 99 cent Asian-made junk – they are not transacting with the local merchants.  Nothing that Obama has proposed, that Geithner has enacted or that Krugman has cheerleaded has meant a damn thing for small businesses in the US.

Until this changes, the bankruptcies, layoffs and delinquencies will continue.

Have fun at the Jobs Summit Apathy Olympics, fellas.