[Podcast] White House Rolls Out Small Biz Jobs Proposals

Posted on | February 8, 2010 | No Comments

Weekly microbusiness news podcast

Weekly microbusiness news podcast

So, while the Saints were busy winning the Superbowl with a yawnful first half and an amazingly exciting second half, yours truly was busy getting the week’s microbusiness news ready to roll.

Never doubt my devotion to microbusinesses!

Of course, in my opinion, the best news of the week is the research. I’m so excited, I can hardly sit still (which makes it very difficult to type, let me tell you). For the most part, the paper merely demonstrates the places where further research is needed but that’s great.

You see, with this paper, we get to hear from microbusiness owners and they tell us that a lot of what people assume to be true about them isn’t. If further research explores just what is here that needs further clarification, description, documentation and whatnot, there’ll be an avalanche of microbusiness research where before there was almost none.

That’s really exciting!

This week, we have more on the President’s small business proposals and whether they’ll matter to micros. There’s also more on the President’s budget. And, as always, this week’s Policy Matters.

Listen to the Microbusiness News Briefs Podcast:

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[February Poll] Do you want Congress to pass health care reform?

Posted on | February 5, 2010 | No Comments

I keep wanting to ask if you still want Congress to pass health care reform but I know I can’t assume you wanted them to do it in the first place.

So, what’s with this question?

I remember having a conversation with a colleague of fairly conservative leanings who surprised me by saying that she definitely wanted Congress to tackle this issue.

“Normally, I’m not a fan of government interference but something’s got to be done. Runaway health care coasts are eating us alive,” she told me. “Whatever Congress does, it couldn’t possibly be worse than what we’ve got.”

Weeeeellll … I don’t know …

It’s kind of an amazing thing but the folks on Capitol Hill have cut so many deals in order to secure passage of this bill that they still haven’t secured passage for that they have managed to alienate absolutely everybody — including many of the folks who might otherwise have supported health care reform.

(Pause for musical interlude … )

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Small business owners don’t like it because it does nothing we can see to rein in costs and it hangs us out to dry for four years or so.

Women don’t like it because it is being used to make statements (which are agreed with by a minority of U.S. citizens) about our reproductive rights.

Consumer advocates don’t like it because it doesn’t do enough to ride herd on insurance companies.

And, honestly, it looks like the folks who get the most assistance from the last proposal I saw was the insurance companies!

Wither away, health care reform?

So, it looks like my friend was wrong. Congress can manage to take something as screwed up as our health care system and make it even worse … as impossible as that seems.

So, the question is: what should be done about it now? Should they go back to the drawing board, with a brief pause to ask the American people what sorts of provisions we would support?

Should they wait until next year, when we’ve had a chance to replace a bunch of them?

Maybe they should just leave bad enough alone, since they seem poised to make things worse?

What do you think?

February Poll: Do you want Congress to pass a health care reform bill

View Results

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January Poll: We have a tie. It seems you folks are feeling very optimistic these days.

“How is the new year/decade looking for you?”

Great! Excited about opportunities ahead! — 40%
I think things will get better soon. — 40%
I’ll probably be out of business before the year is out. — 20%


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Say, Mr. Vice President, can we talk about the middle class?

Posted on | February 4, 2010 | No Comments

Middle_Class-0037

(Photo from WhiteHouse.gov)

I protest!

Okay, there, that’s done.

I just finished reading an interesting column by E.J. Dionne Jr. about a conversation he had with Vice President Biden and the thought occurred to me:

If you work for the Washington Post or the New York Times, you can sit down and have a conversation with the Vice President, even if you are writing an opinion column rather than a news story.

If you are a little independent, niche publication, written and published by an equally independent individual with minimal political connections, you don’t get to talk to the Vice President — no matter how important or groundbreaking your story might be.

Of course, I realize that this works in the same way that big business often works. There are only so many hours in the day and there are only so many news outlets that our friend Mr. Biden can talk to. The most efficient use of his limited time would be to have him talk to the folks with the largest audiences.

On the other hand, that communications strategy does the consumers of news and information a disservice, because I am going to ask Vice President Biden questions that nobody from either the New York Times or the Washington Post will ask him.

It’s all about perspective. I’ve mentioned that before.

Only I won’t get to ask those questions (because I’m not important enough), which means that the people who occupy this space with me (maybe hundreds, maybe millions, tough to say) will never find out the answer to those questions, either.

And doesn’t that just suck?

This is the sort of thing that happens when there is a certain amount of conflict between the stuff you want to talk to the American people about and the stuff we might want to talk to you about.

When you work in the White House (especially when you have the Number One or Number Two job in the White House), you get to control your message as much as you want.

But … and this is the bit about Web 2.0 that everybody in muckety-muck land seems to have trouble grasping … when you work to control your message like that, it makes you less authentic.

And that’s when people stop listening.


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Dawn Rivers Baker, microbusiness journalistDawn Rivers Baker, aka The Journal Blogger, is the editor and publisher of The MicroEnterprise Journal, and the self-proclaimed Socrates of the small business blogosphere. See her official bio to learn more.


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