The Small Business Jobs Forum – Joe Walsh & IL 8
Schweddy Balls to the Rescue
This posting is unusual. It is written in first person - something I do not excel at. It is written thus because, Mr. Walsh, this is personal.
On Thursday, I put on my big girl underpants and took one for the team. Crossing enemy lines, I attended his forum and even asked a question. I opted out of the pre-speech viewing party. (One woman can only tolerate so much without having a Lewis Black "Rock…Fossil" moment!) NPR in the car, thank you.
Earlier this month, former actor Joe Walsh announced his Small Business Jobs Forum and scheduled it to coincide with the President’s address. Joe chose this date because he refused to be a “prop” during the President’s speech.
To be clear, Joe Walsh won IL8 by 291 votes. Joe Walsh won because folks on the left had a herding cats can’t-play-nice-together moment. Joe Walsh won because he received a LOT of corporate dollars.
Hey Joe – just to clarify - who is the prop for whom? Yeah, we thought so.
My Alice
On Wednesday, Team Walsh phoned to confirm the location and time. The staffer also set the tone - Joe wants a list of “rules” and taxes “hurting” small business. Uh-oh.
Small Business people are entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs are wired differently; they have taken a leap of faith. Entrepreneurs do not quake and whine at the prospect of rules and taxes. The Google, the SBA and a host of professionals help navigate those waters – it’s not that bad. If you believe you have the next “Million Dollar Idea” – you’re jumping in. That is one of the things that makes Americans unique. (I would not say we are "exceptional.")
Entrepreneurs and small business folks in IL8 are small tech companies, mom and pop businesses, realtors, trades people, small manufacturing companies, and the like. To my chagrin, some of the IL8 small business folks in attendance were also the uber-wealthy “financial services” professionals. As these individuals are the type of people who are us accustomed to being the most important persons in the room, they dominated the forum’s discussion during the forty-five minutes I “lasted” in Tealand.
Though Mr. Walsh warned the audience to stay on point and frame questions in regard to small business, this rule did not apply to him. He began by reading off partisan “talking points” about jobs and debt and other terrible, horrible, scary things. He baited the audience by asking for “reactions to” the President’s Speech and “If the President were sitting here right now what would you – respectfully – tell him.”
Let the whining begin. These folks didn’t need a Joe Walsh forum – they needed Nanny Jo to put them in a time out and teach them to stop whining and having temper tantrums. These people are not well actualized adults. They are whiny bullies.
Three Tea-soaked Themes Evolved
Point #1: The President doesn’t like us and he has hurt our feelings. He doesn’t like business. There are no “business people” in his administration. (Because that worked so well in the W/Dick White House) Why should we cooperate with someone who doesn’t like us? (They behaved exactly like “The Pack” in prior posts)
Point #2: There are too many rules. We don’t like rules especially EPA and NLRB rules. Rules make us cry. Rules make us sit on our hands. Rules are expensive. We should have “rules” like they do in India China
Point #3 – We are going to sit in the corner and pout and do nothing because we just don’t know what this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, no-business-experience LIBERAL will do next. It is too uncertain. We are scared. We are not going to play ball until there is more “certainty.” We will wait until 2012 when we again have friends in the White House and #1 and #2 go away. (“The Pack” in rare form)
As expected, Mr. Walsh’s standard response to any question asked was to site a “rule” but give no specifics of said rule.
I asked what could be done by the Small Business Association, by HIS Congressional committee on Small Business and by the “Bully Pulpit” to get banks to lend to small business and well, everyone else. His answer was that big old mean misters Dodd and Frank had, by their “Act,” made it “impossible” for banks to lend to small business. Did you know that Chris Dodd has ruined banks? Of course, no follow-up questions like, "In What Way" or "How So" were allowed. Big Surprise.
He and the rabid Pack of 'Baggers continued to bang on the EPA, OSHA, NLRB, Dodd-Frank and the like. This was not productive. This was a stunt – a well-staged theatrical production - complete with local media and “on camera time.”
The Financial Services people in attendance, from what I can gather, do not like the transparency (yes, you, too Big Oil and Big Energy) required in Dodd-Frank. They do not like the requirement that all “financial people” and "financial consultants" be registered and licensed. They REALLY don’t like the provisos regarding Mortgage Banking, Hedge Fund Managers, CEO Compensation, Swaps, and Capitalization. These rules level the playing field and impose fines and penalties. The Financial Frogs are exceptional people they are not like everyone else; rules should NOT apply to them.
Of course, they “forgot” that the absence of these regulations (which still need to be tightened up) were at the root cause of the great meltdown. Like Pontius Pilate, they believe their hands are clean. It was all a “misunderstanding of complex instruments” and a “few bad eggs.”
These self-righteous, self-absorbed, profit-margin worshipping idolators are behaving like the rabid “Pack” members they are – if Nanny Jo can’t get the job done, perhaps We the People need to send The Dog Whisperer, Cesar Milan, to Congress and Corporate Boardrooms.
Several IL8 folks came in good faith and with specific questions.
- Realtors wanted to know why housing was not also a top priority – valid point.
- A contractor wanted OSHA clarification (not repeal) of Chinese Drywall removal regulations. This is a real concern.
- Another small business person asked if it were possible to mandate a small set-aside percentage for small business (if) the infrastructure provision of the JobsAct passed. (In
As a result of the forum and listening carefully to the GOP response to President Obama, it is clear that Corporate America has no intention of playing ball. They are content to “self-mutilate” for the next 18 months until they get their way. They are not about to do ANYTHING unless their anti-regulatory demands are met. Wall Street’s non-response to the JobsAct tells us they are “in on” this “tactic” too – they might show more “confidence” if they weren’t so damn regulated. Oh the horror.
And then we have Ben & Jerry’s. While all the bankers, brokers, CEO’s and manufacturers are wringing their hands and pouting in the corner, Ben & Jerry’s continues to grow and introduce new products. Ben & Jerry’s is a great little case study of how doing the right thing can also result in profit. Stunning.
This week Ben & Jerry’s gave us “Schweddy Balls” – there may be a ray of hope.
Hey Corporate America, grow a pair of Schweddy Balls and get back to work.
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