Real Small businesses to Republicans; "Stay away from Entitlements...I'm willing to pay more taxes!!!"

I've said it here for years; consumers are the job creators, not business. The Republican campaign to turn that simple truth around has been largely successful. It not only defangs consumer power, but it also discourages them from demanding higher wages to maintain that power.

The myth that a poor person has never hired an employee should also be dispelled. Ask any small business owner if their rich or poor. They’ll tell you they can barely afford an employee. To many owners, they’re still poor and barely making it. Yet they continue to hire so they can meet demand.

Republicans are short term thinkers, trashing the ability of consumers to create demand in the future by reducing their incomes from Social Security and raising their expenses for Medicare. Lowering the rate of yearly increases only short changes their ability to spend any extra cash.

That’s what the following story from the Washington Post is telling us, in the words of a few small business owners:

Some small employers say those tax discussions are overshadowing an even greater threat to their businesses – cuts to entitlement programs. “If I could talk to Congress, I would tell them to stay away from entitlements,” Mary Black, owner of a UPS franchise in Baton Rouge, La., said. “I’m willing to pay more taxes if that’s what’s needed to pull up the country, and my business would be okay. But cutting Medicare and Medicaid could have some really bad consequences for small businesses.”

Without government-backed insurance, Black would no longer be in business. During the summer of 2010, her 71-year-old husband fell ill … He recovered, but not before the medical bills soared to more than $130,000. “Had it not been for Medicare, my business would have gone under,” Black said, noting that her business would have likely been the first thing sold to cover the expenses. “No question, I would have had to close the doors.” … one in eight small business owners was over the age of 65, and twice that many were less than a decade away from being eligible for Medicare.

Jim Houser, owner of Hawthorne Auto Clinic in Portland, Ore., explained entitlement programs help maintain a strong base of consumers on which his and other small companies rely. “A lot of people like to retire in Oregon, and I need my customers to be able to afford my services,” said Houser, “People need to have a reliable source of income, especially after paying into those programs for so many years, in order for us to have customers.” Houser, like Black, said he would gladly accept a tax increase if it meant lawmakers left entitlement programs alone.