I have had about all I can take. I can no longer listen while John and Sarah continue to try to convince us that they will be good for Joe The Plumber. The more Joe The Plumber, Sarah the hockey mom and John the politician speak, the more I realize that they have no concept of what small a business faces every day. I decided that it was time that Tom The Carpenter spoke out. Unlike Joe and John and Sarah, I have owned my own small business for over 25 years. I started my construction company in the early eighties. It has survived the particularly challenging times faced by small businesses in the early eighties and the early nineties. Nothing is ever guaranteed but I plan to still be in the business when the current economic slide ends.
I want to try to help people understand what owning a small business in America is like. At Busch Gardens in Williamsburg, Virginia there is a rollercoaster called the Loch Ness Monster. The slow trip trying to get close to the top, the sudden drops, the twists, the turns, the loops, the surprises and yes, those times when you are sick to your stomach is pretty similar to life as a small businessperson. Most small business owners can relate to this image.
The day to day business challenges of providing a product or service are just the beginning. Decades of budget cuts for trade related programs in the public schools has made finding educated and skilled employees another hill that we have to climb. The ride gets even tougher when you add the financial pressure of making a weekly payroll and working together with your employees to help them earn a living while you try to make a profit. Paying insurance, payroll and taxes leaves little for those who take the risk and start a business.
I have had some successes as a businessman, but there is one place that I have failed miserably. I have not been able to find a way to generate enough revenue so I could help my employees with health insurance without those costs putting us out of business. Employee health care is a huge challenge for small businesses. Health insurance should be affordable for every hard working individual in our country. Insurance experts and economists have agreed that the final result of the McCain health care plan would be that millions more would not be covered. The McCain health care plan is another sign of how out of touch the McCain team is with reality and with the people who are getting their hands dirty.
At the same time that I am fighting the fight while struggling to pay taxes, insurance and payroll, ExxonMobil announces quarterly profits of 14.83 Billion Dollars. That's $14,830,000,000.00 for one quarter. At the same time that I am fighting the fight, CEOs have been fleecing the corporations for millions of dollars. At the same time that I am fighting the fight, greed has been rewarded with bailouts. So please John and Sarah, don't insult me by saying we need to cut the taxes of the wealthy so that the money can trickle down. I no longer believe that the trickle down theory works. We have seen the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
The foundation of America has always been the small businesses. More tax breaks and loopholes for the rich will continue to cause that small business foundation to deteriorate. The economies of scale already give the large corporations an advantage. What Tom The Carpenter needs is not found in the trickle down theory of economics. That is a theory and experiment that has failed. What Tom The Carpenter needs is sensible health care costs. What Tom The Carpenter needs is a more equitable or fair tax system so the shrinking middle class and the less affluent don't pay more than their fair share. What Tom The Carpenter needs is a better trained and educated workforce.
So Joe, I think after you spend some time in the small business trenches, you will better understand that what Joe The Plumber and Tom The Carpenter need is the plan and the vision of the Obama team.