http://demopedia.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x5635490Oh my.
The sparkling husband primitive's here too.
Phoebe Loosinhouse (1000+ posts) Mon May-11-09 06:34 PM
Original message
Why is SMALL BUSINESS across the country not unified & SCREAMING for a public option?
Anyone here ever been a small business person? I have. Twice. With employees. One of the greatest hardships for small business is health benefits for employees. Since you are a SMALL business, it eats up a far greater percent of your gross.
How many of you out there are Employed by small businesses that offer squat in terms of benefits? You may or may not be aware of this, but I was told by my advisers that as a business owner I HAD to offer the same healthcare to full-time employees that I had for myself, if my benefits were run through the corporation and paid by the corporation. Which I was happy to do.
In fact, we paid for the ENTIRE health benefit without having the employee contribute at all. This was twenty years ago and health care, while still a large chunk of the bottom line, was not as GROSSLY inflated a figure as it is now. Nowadays, that would be impossible.
We tried to be the kind of employers we would want to have as an employee. The businesses basically broke even. We had the pleasure of 24/7 and just barely supported ourselves and provided employment to others, but at some point, we just said -enough!
Another fact about small business and healthcare: If you are in a fairly small group and one or more of your members has a serious or catastrophic illness, the rates for your little group will go through the roof! I have seen this happen as an employee working for a relatively small business. Some of the employees left the group because they could do better independently in the open market, thus negating the ostensible reason for being in a "group" in the first place.
All politicians love hugging and kissing the small business "baby". "We love you and your American sense of entrpreneurialism! Americans can do anything!" Yes, anything but provide decent healthcare in a small business environment for both owners and employees.
mikeiddy (186 posts) Mon May-11-09 06:44 PM
Response to Original message
3. because many of them are republicans
and can be convinced to vote against their own self interest.
Phoebe Loosinhouse (1000+ posts) Mon May-11-09 06:49 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. Most small business people are not stupid and they deal with spreadsheets everday, but I do get your point that some of them have bought into the completely FALSE premise that the Republican Party is the party that is "pro-business". That is exactly the point of my OP. They are wrong.
We need serious outreach to the small business community.
Stinky The Clown (1000+ posts) Mon May-11-09 06:54 PM
Response to Original message
5. I'm a small business. I have been SCREAMING
Some nitric acid--an old frontier remedy that works--shoved up the rectal aperture of the sparkling husband primitive might cure those haemerrhoids.
Thothmes (1000+ posts) Mon May-11-09 07:01 PM
Response to Original message
6. My guess is that so far, no one has presented the definitive plan to pay for National Health Care. That means that the small business owner may (in his opinion) wide up paying for a substantial portion of it.
dysfunctional press (1000+ posts) Mon May-11-09 07:06 PM
Response to Original message
7. because a lot of them don't offer benefits in the first place.
and a lot of the ones that do are still republicans anyway.
Jane Austin (1000+ posts) Mon May-11-09 07:12 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. " and a lot of the ones that do are still republicans anyway."
Really?
What do you base that on?
Don't forget that a lot of small businesses are plumbing, electrical, bookkeeping and other "trades".
These people are very close to what goes on in the world and are quite likely to be dems or independents.
Dogstuff.com is a small business and both of us owners are liberal dems.
Most of our employees are, too, except the one who refuses to vote, in spite of my efforts.
I dunno. Most who are in the trades around here are Republicans.
The only Democrats are those feeding at the public trough, governmental employees and welfarists.
Stinky The Clown (1000+ posts) Mon May-11-09 10:00 PM
Response to Reply #7
18. I have two partners, both as lefty as I am ......
One, who is a bit older than me, was a no shit hippy, owned a health foods store with her husband ...... and is pretty much unchanged.
My younger partner and I became friends when we skipped out of work on a bullshit pretense to go see Clinton's first inaugural parade. We founded the company just a few months later.
KamaAina (1000+ posts) Mon May-11-09 07:18 PM
Response to Original message
10. I have long maintained that small business really has no political voice in this country
The Dem party is (supposed to be) pro-labor and pro-consumer. The "pro-business" repuke party is only pro-corporate business. That leaves small business out in the cold in many ways. You've just hit on one of them.
Now we know why richboy tightwad playboy Pedro Picasso took that job stuffing envelopes for a political action group; yeah, yeah, sure, he was hired for "artistic" purposes, but in the end, most "professionals" working for political action groups spend more time stuffing envelopes. It comes with the territory.
Anyway, richboy tightwad playboy Pedro Picasso's wife probably got tired of paying the rent for his "studio."
Atman (1000+ posts) Mon May-11-09 07:20 PM
Response to Original message
11. Because they're screaming trying to keep their heads above water.
Get serious..."small business" in deep doo-doo. What are they supposed to do, pay all their employees for a day of so they can protest march? BIG BUSINESS has the resources and the CASH to cajole and bribe and strong-arm and lobby. Small business is small business. They're trying to pay the rent.
Uh-oh. Something like one of those "not a damned dime" days:
Phoebe Loosinhouse (1000+ posts) Mon May-11-09 07:29 PM
Response to Reply #11
13. I know all about paying the rent. But small multiplied many, many times is HUGE
It's pretty radical, but it would be FANTASTIC if small business shut down for one day to protest the expense of healthcare and the inequalities. Small businesses have unexpected closures all the time:
The power goes out, the streets are flooded, key employee gets sick with no replacement, no delivery, etc.etc.
It would be beyond imagining if a huge amount of small businesses would shut down for one day in recognition of the insurmountable hurdles they face when it comes to healthcare. They could call it "Small Business Healthcare Awareness Day".
The methamphetimine primitive, who's been in trouble before, and couldn't quite get out:
merh (1000+ posts) Mon May-11-09 08:54 PM
Response to Original message
16. Because the conservatives/rethugs control and have controlled the message and the organizations formed to provide support to the small business owners.
The conservatives control the chambers of commerce, the kiawanas, the rotary, the lions club, etc.
That is one way that the repugs were able to get so much power, they took over the local community organizations and promoted the message (no taxes, small government, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, yada yada yada ...)
