Posted on 07/08/2012 5:58:20 AM PDT by Kaslin
The economic experts are worried.
From the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, to the central bankers of China, the U.K. and France, to the specialists on Wall Street, some of the presumed “best and brightest” among us are expressing concerns over a global economic slowdown. And the fussing got a little louder after last Friday’s employment report here in the U.S.
These presumed geniuses, including the IMF’s Christine Lagarde, in particular, need to understand something. Their friend President Barack Obama has become nothing short of an enemy to one of the world’s greatest economic engines – American small businesses.
It’s insufficient to say that President Obama isn’t helping small businesses, or that the President isn’t “trying hard enough.” The Obama Administration is proactively attacking small businesses, as though they were domestic terrorist cells – while at the same time they seem genuinely surprised that “job creation” is so weak.
Small businesses and their respective advocacy groups have no idea how to cope with the mandates placed upon them by Obamacare, nor how vicious the President’s army of 50,000 new I.R.S. agents will be in auditing and penalizing them. And since 2010’s “banking reform” laws came to pass, banking and lending institutions have been in a state of shell-shock trying to figure out how to continue doing what they do – lending – without getting penalized for allegedly violating the all-important reforms.
What isn’t so widely known, however, is the increased frequency with which individual businesses are being confronted and threatened by governmental agencies other than the I.R.S. For example, U.S. Congressman David Schweikert (R-Arizona) tells a horrifying story about a small business owner and his government- and it’s a story that helps explain why the economy isn’t growing.
While visiting a local coffee house in his hometown of Scottdale, Schweikert is confronted by another patron who asks “can you please help me?” Turns out this other patron is the owner of Zoe Inidustries, Inc., a small, local company that designs and sells custom plumbing fittings and supplies (see their website at ShowerBuddy.Com).
As Congressman Schweikert sits down to listen to the man’s story, the sickening details emerge. This small, private business has been employing people in Scottsdale since 2000, and has earned itself an “A+” rating from the Better Business Bureau, but is now being told that it must pay $447,000 to President Obama’s Department of Energy.
Why would the D.O.E. know anything at all about Zoe Industries? The Department of Energy regularly, and randomly tests new plumbing fixtures that are bought and sold in the U.S., and a particular shower head product that Zoe Industries designs allegedly didn’t measure up to federal standards.
The U.S. federal government requires all new shower heads to possess what is known as an “O-ring” flow restrictor mechanism within the shower head that - as its’ name implies – reduces the flow of water and presumably reduces water consumption. And while all of Zoe Industries’ shower heads have the proper O-ring mechanisms in them, the Department of Energy believed that, in one particular case, the O-ring was “too easy to remove” during a test.
Schweikert got to work, investigating the D.O.E.’s case against Zoe Industries. Fortunately, Zoe Industries was able to recently “settle” the complaint against them by their government, by paying a much smaller fine – just slightly under $30,000.00. But this happened after the company had engaged in over a year’s worth of “discussions” and “negotiations” with the D.O.E., and after the company had accrued over a year’s worth of legal bills to defend themselves against the D.O.E.
For his part, Congressman Schweikert also shot-back legislatively, authoring and passing an Amendment to a Department of Energy funding bill that would forbid the D.O.E. from spending any of its funds on testing shower heads. This restriction on how the D.O.E. spends its’ money likely won’t hold up in the Democrat-controlled Senate, but it nonetheless got the D.O.E’s attention-after its’ passage the D.O.E. was on the telephone to Congressman Schweikert expressing “concern” that there had been a “misunderstanding.”
So did the D.O.E. extort Zoe Industries? Clearly, an agency of our federal government used its own brute force to extrapolate money out of the pockets of a private citizen. And the growing fear among business owners is that instances like this are only a “sneak preview” of things to come, when the I.R.S. begins policing individuals and companies for alleged Obamacare compliance violations.
And the word “alleged” is very important here. One need not have violated the law at all – but if your government alleges that you have, you either must pay the fine that your government is demanding, or be prepared to run-up potentially massive bills paying Attorneys to represent you and fight on your behalf.
This is why our economy is stagnant right now. The President who claims he is saving us from oppressive healthcare bills, is the same President whose Administration is comfortable fining a small plumbing supply shop owner nearly half a million dollars. American businesses are living in fear of American government, and businesses owners are not in a position (financially or otherwise) to take more risks and try to grow and expand – they are “tapped out” just trying to survive.
Obama: “I wasn’t born with a Silver Spoon in my mouth, I was born with your silver spoon in my mouth”.
But but but but...........it says right here in this book. The children need to be punished and removed from the playground by RESPONSIBLE ADULTS!!!!!!!
I was wondering what Cass Sunstein had been up to. Romney had better talk about a 25% reduction of the federal work force for starters.
Can't have "too much" water flow, can't buy "too big" a soft drink, ad infinitum. I always take the restrictor out of my shower heads so I have the "luxury" of deciding how much water I want to use during a shower. I usually self-restrict by not opening the faucet all the way, but there are times when a copious, hot stream is desireable - especially when aching from some hard labor.
The American small business groups saw your cloud writing in the sky Obama, and knew they had to stymie you, to perform decisions even at an economic cost to harass you and to belittle your image.
Whatever it took it was done, and you cannot force them to convert to socialism, they would rather go under than bow down in submission.
One honey bee sting is an irritant, a cloud on the attack can kill.
Obama’s way of raising revenue without raising taxes.
I think I’m going to make a meme picture of that!
You’ll be amazed by the power of government desperate for revenue. The ways and means are endless as long as private citizens ‘own’ anything.
Nomenklatura
How telling is this trend? Look at the number of laws that exempt our elected officials and bureaucrats from following them. If it's good enough for Joe Six Pack, it's good enough for Congressman Handout. But, no.
Do I oppose the testing of plumbing fixtures? No, I don't. I oppose the testing of plumbing fixtures by my government. The Consumers Union and organizations like them are perfectly capable of doing the tests and using publicity to influence buyers to "buy the right stuff." We don't need a regulatory agency doing this. Besides, the pensions paid by the consumer testing groups is far, far less than those paid to government workers. Not to mention that the private testing companies can do it quicker, and there are no high-priced lawyers and enforcers going after the companies who don't meet certain guidelines.
Do I oppose all inspection of products? No. But the inspections need to focus on hazards in products that can kill or seriously maim -- think lawn mowers and baby cribs. Keeping toes from being chopped off is far more important than trying to reduce water consumption in showers by 10 percent -- and remember, we are talking about using a gun to enforce these petty things. (Government action by regulatory action, remember, is always backed up with a gun, whether pulled or not -- that's what Federal Marshals carry.)
So, consider: Obama is figuratively holding a gun to the head of American business...
And, if you live anywhere near our border with Mexico, you will find some fine, non-restricted showerheads just over that border.
Oh, the huge manatee!
And the libs still won't condemn the illegal, anti-green, heathens coming across our border ;-D. At least they have the common sense to know that the faucet is a fine way to limit water flow if such is desired.
King Barack won’t stop until he drives every last small business in America out of business.
See you in the Gulag, trebb. I pray your family gets visitation rights.
Is this happening in your city? This is a copy of an email from AFP — Americans for Prosperity:
Danger! Danger!
Below is a copy of a proposed Amendment being pushed by an organization called “Move To Amend”. It is an attempt to strip the rights of select organizations in order to limit or stop their spending. Note that unions, non-governmental organizations (NGO) nor environmental groups are mentioned.
This is being pushed across the U.S. at the city and county level and has now come to Salem. Below the amendment is the motion Salem City Councilor Laura Tesler has put on the City Council agenda for Monday July 9th.
This needs to be stopped dead in its tracks!!!
Contact your elected representative now and tell them not to let this travesty move forward. Come to the City Council meeting Monday night and support us in stopping this. You don’t need to give testimony, just be there to back us up.
Help us stop the destruction of our Constitution and the decay of our rights and freedoms.
The time to take a stand and say NO MORE!!!! is now.
Move to Amend 28th Amendment
[from http://movetoamend.org/amendment]
Section 1 [A corporation is not a person and can be regulated]
The rights protected by the Constitution of the United States are the rights of natural persons only.
Artificial entities, such as corporations, limited liability companies, and other entities, established by the laws of any State, the United States, or any foreign state shall have no rights under this Constitution and are subject to regulation by the People, through Federal, State, or local law.
The privileges of artificial entities shall be determined by the People, through Federal, State, or local law, and shall not be construed to be inherent or inalienable.
Section 2 [Money is not speech and can be regulated]
Federal, State and local government shall regulate, limit, or prohibit contributions and expenditures, including a candidate’s own contributions and expenditures, for the purpose of influencing in any way the election of any candidate for public office or any ballot measure.
Federal, State and local government shall require that any permissible contributions and expenditures be publicly disclosed.
The judiciary shall not construe the spending of money to influence elections to be speech under the First Amendment.
Section 3
Nothing contained in this amendment shall be construed to abridge the freedom of the press
There is a letter from Laura Tesler to the Mayor and City Council for a motion to put this on the November ballot.
So we can all vote it down.
I can see a lot of small businesses downsizing in terms of employees, telling subsets of employees to go form an LLC and outsourcing that work to them as subcontractors. That way, they can get their number of employees down below various thresholds for aggravation from the Feds.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.