Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Was the Voice of Small Business Heard at the Ballot Box?

This article is reprinted in its entirety, and may be found at Entrepreneur.com's blog. There are some excellent points and questiosn posed. WELL worth a read by all!
By: Carol Tice

"With many election results in, some business owners are excited to see the U.S. Congress lose its Democratic majority. National Federation of Independent Business president and CEO Dan Danner said, 'It's clear that the voice of small business was heard in the election.'

But was it? Will the election changes really help small businesses to thrive?

What appears to be emerging out of the election is a Congress divided. Democrats retained their majority in the Senate, but lost it in the House. So now we have a Democratic Senate and President, but a Republican-dominated house.

I've been around long enough to recall other eras where we had this kind of a mix, and it is often a recipe for a lot of wheel-spinning. This could easily devolve into a lot of busywork and posturing that doesn't go anywhere. A cycle of Senate and House not agreeing on anything, unable to reconcile bills. Or bills that simply get vetoed and face difficult override battles in Congress. The Republican House majority isn't large enough to make that a snap.

If you wanted change, I'm not sure things have changed enough to really make any difference. If you liked things the way they were, the election probably didn't make you happy, either.

While NFIB may be excited to see 19 of its members, and in all 240 of the candidates it supported, head to Washington...Will it really help? My take is it would likely require more changes in who warms the chairs in Congress and the White House to get things moving in a new direction.

What do you think -- will the new makeup of Congress lead to a more favorable business climate, or just political gridlock?"

What do you think? Leave a comment!

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