Obama's New Policy to Crush Small Businesses

President Obama and his team of economic advisors are continuing their crusade against entrepreneurs and small companies that are the traditional engine to economic growth. The latest anti-business Obama policies appear in a just-released Executive Order 13495, a new rule to be enforced by the Department of Labor. This particular regulation is aimed directly at small business owners and attacks small businesses' most valuable asset--their employees.

Executive Order 13495, which will be both complicated and costly to enforce, represents just another example of Team Obama’s complete lack of understanding of the concerns of small business owners. After 15 years as a small business owner, and as the former Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration, I've been to the circus a few times and seen all the strings connected the federal government and its indifference to the plight of small business owners. For small businesses, Executive Order 13495 is perhaps the most damaging action yet to come out of the Obama Administration.

First, in our country, a business has the freedom to hire the workers it thinks are best suited to ensure the company's success. The new Team Obama contracting rule tramples over that basic, capitalist principle by requiring any company which wins a federal contract to hire the employees that the government identifies.

This means that the government has new and expanded powers to direct the hiring, firing and promotion of employees at private companies.

Second, government contracting is challenging and intensely competitive. Profit margins are wire thin. Companies need to have the freedom to hire those whom they best believe can provide the best value to the government at the lowest cost. This new rule will make that kind of entrepreneurial freedom almost impossible as the federal government forces the company into employment and salary negotiations with persons of the government’s choice, with the government participating in the negotiation process.

Third, this new rule shows that Team Obama has no understanding of the challenges facing small businesses. Small businesses create 3 out of every 4 jobs in the United States. Small businesses are the source of much of the innovation in the United States. They are more agile because of their size and more willing to take risks.

A small business' employees are its life's blood. Successful small business leaders all understand the need to hire, retain and build a dedicated base of employees and provide them with whatever additional training is needed to give the business an edge and ability to compete. But now, in this new regulation, Obama seeks to undermine small business owners with a too-heavy, government hand that will give the government broad new powers to poach and strip a successful small business owner of its most valuable employees whenever it wishes. Raiding the employee rolls of small companies robs them of their most important asset.

Lastly, this rule shows a profound disrespect for the employee, and treats them as a kind of indentured servant or slave, chattel to be passed from one company to another without consideration of the employee's desires.

Obama's colossal ignorance of the challenges facing small businesses seems a clear sign that once again, the President just doesn’t get it. Time and again, new, burdensome regulations are heaped upon small businesses and the nation’s job creators. And yet, Obama seems simultaneously unaware of the damage he has done and continues to do, even as he issues platitudes and half-baked thoughts about the need to create jobs.

Unless I miss my guess, Obama’s big Jobs Speech is likely to be "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." The fact is, the president lacks even a basic understanding of how difficult it is to start a small business and see it grow. This disturbing anti-business trend is quickly becoming the primary Obama legacy.

Small business owners understand that creating jobs requires a system that encourages risk-taking because it makes it possible for risk takers to reap rewards. What government should do is provide regulatory relief for many of the arcane and obsolete requirements that hinder job creators.

Unfortunately, this latest executive order tells us that Obama is moving his Administration in the opposite direction and has decided to add to the regulatory thicket by making it hard for entrepreneurs and small business owners to succeed.

Creating jobs is fairly straightforward. Getting the White House to abandon union-generated ideas that stifle innovation, crush competitiveness, and condescend to small businesses—well, that's a lot harder.

13495 - Abstract: Executive Order 13495 of January 30, 2009, Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers Under Service Contracts, establishes the policy that Federal service contracts generally include a clause requiring the contractor and its subcontractors, under a contract that succeeds a contract for the same or similar service at the same location, to offer qualified employees (except managerial and supervisory personnel) employed on the predecessor contract a right of first refusal to employment under the successor contract. The order assigns enforcement responsibility to the Secretary of Labor and directs the Secretary, in consultation with the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council, to issue regulations to implement the order.

This should not be a problem since the government is out of other people’s money and won’t be contracting anything in the very near future. If I were a small business, I’d “opt out” of any government business. This is doubly true here in California where the State has already stiffed its vendors more than once when they “temporarily” ran out of cash. The only thing that’s worse than no business is going broke because you did business with the government and were not paid.

It seems to me the the Obama Regime has looked at the most effective way to kill the small business sector. It has calculated that the most important asset to the small business are its employees. By targeting the employees, it eliminates that human capitol that is the heart of a small business’ ability to compete and find success.

Putting this all together and connecting the dots, this administration is systematically destroying America. They are the enemy of “We the people.”

I don't know if this is as much about killing small business as it is ensuring every government contract will be union endorsed since the unions will get a pass on their employee rolls whereas an independent business man holding a federal contract will not. May explain the multiple trips made by Trumpka to the WH early in August. After Hoffa's unveiled threat today against anyone not in support of the Union or his imperial majesty, there is little doubt the unions, run by Communists and Communist sympathizers, are going to double down for the Communist in chief. I always thought the individual union members would be smart enough to see the obvious annihilation of their unions into organizing Communist collectives but I guess not. Wait till they find out their retirement funds have been looted to support B. Clinton, A. Gore, J. Kerry, &his royal imperial majesty.

Actually, the policy for everything is to steal money. The favored will stow away the money while seeming to take action on behalf of the minions.

The minions are but the means to the end of stealing the money

“Executive Order 13495, which will be both complicated and costly to enforce, represents just another example of Team Obama’s complete lack of understanding of the concerns of small business owners.”
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Now for the truth, it ACTUALLY represents Team Obama’s complete UNDERSTANDING of how to destroy America and the intent to do so as quickly as possible. It represents America’s complete LACK of understanding of how to pick a president. Allowing this hater of all things American to assume the title of president is one of the greatest national failures of all time and was only made possible by a decades long campaign to dumb down the average voter to the point that he would be completely overmatched intellectually by a fourth grade dropout sharecropper of 1920 vintage.

“The only thing that’s worse than no business is going broke because you did business with the government and were not paid.”
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Exactly, I have heard small businessmen actually say, “If you never get paid you are no better off than if you had not gotten the job.” It makes me want to scream, actually you are FAR WORSE OFF to get the job and not get paid, you would be miles ahead to simply go sit on the creek bank with a cane pole, you might at least catch something to eat rather than losing a lot of money in costs.

Maybe I’m just anal but I really believe that such imprecision in language represents lack of clarity in thought and explains a lot of what has happened to the country.

actually you are FAR WORSE OFF to get the job and not get paid

Very true. If nothing else, had you not taken the job you wouldn't have had to pay for anything like supplies, labor, etc, whatever inputs you had to pay for up front in order to get the job done; having taken the job, you're in negative territory until you get paid enough to at least cover the marginal expenses you incurred because of the job.

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