When the 112th Congress convenes in January, there will be lots of new faces in the crowd, many of which belong to entrepreneurs who have traded the day-to-day management of their small businesses to tackle one of the toughest tasks imaginable: rescuing a federal government that is daily rushing deeper into trouble.
Many small-business owners heeded the urgent call for mid-term election candidates issued by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the nation’s leading small business association, which campaigned for and financially aided 290 pro-business leaders, 83 percent of whom won. Twenty-four of those are NFIB members.
The very traits and instincts that distinguish small business risk-takers from others compelled these entrepreneurs to step forward and volunteer to help find solutions to this impending tragedy. Like a parent who sees a child in danger, they could no longer stand by as the nation’s economy continued to sink beneath misguided federal policies fueled by wasteful spending.
These Main Streeters aren’t exactly eager to trade the excitement of entrepreneurship for the plodding and often punishing process of legislative politics, but they are determined to offer something unique to Capitol Hill: the much-needed perspective of those who have what it takes to start and run a job-creating small business.
They are skilled at operating with limited resources, driving productivity and returning profits back to their businesses to foster growth – and they know for sure that you can’t stay in business if you spend more than you take in. These are all concepts that have virtually disappeared from Washington. And while these citizen-volunteers are greatly needed in Congress now, they know there will be a price to pay for leaving their enterprises.
This January, they will leave their businesses in the capable hands of employees or family members and work for the taxpayers instead for a while. They will quickly be put to work seeking solutions to counter such failure-prone ideas as employer-mandated health care, stimulus and bailout programs that increasingly divert money to government sinkholes, and pro-labor laws that are assured to thwart job creation.
Without government help or oversight, many of these future members of Congress once created enterprises out of nothing more than an idea – enterprises that offer meaningful jobs for families and serve to stabilize the foundation of the economy. Now they see opportunities to share their entrepreneurial experiences in a desperately needed overhaul.
Professional politicians they are not. Small-business owners have a long-standing reputation as a source of innovation, involvement and inspiration, as achievers who find solutions where others see only obstacles. The arrival of this optimistic group will help return something to Washington that has long been missing: sensible management and fiscal integrity.
Once they have proved the value of the benefits of free enterprise, helped steer the economy back on course and demonstrated to non-believers that government can be a tool to help America grow and prosper, many will return to their businesses and resume their roles as job creators and community leaders, yet keeping a close eye on Washington in case they’re needed again.
Dan Danner is president and chief executive officer of the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in Washington, D.C.
