Guess Who’s Coming to Washington?

It’s a long way from Main Street America to Capitol Hill, a distance most small business owners prefer not to travel. But greater numbers of business owners than ever before will be packing up and moving to Washington, D.C., next year to take their seats in the 112th U.S. Congress.

After years of pleading with Congress to stop wasting their tax dollars, help them provide affordable health care, limit unnecessary regulation and red tape, many entrepreneurs felt they had no other choice but to place their names on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Of the more than 200 congressional candidates the National Federation of Independent Business met with this year, more than half are active small business owners or have close ties to small business. More than two dozen are current members of the association. Most of them won their elections, including 19 NFIB members.

This is outstanding news for America’s small-business community and job seekers because it means there will be a lot more people in Congress who understand that the best way to create jobs is to get out of the way, and off of the backs, of small businesses.

We’ll have more people in Congress in 2011 who know, from first-hand experience, that lower individual income tax rates are essential for small-business survival and growth.

We’ll have more Members of Congress who have struggled to afford health insurance for themselves and their employees – and they will know how the new health care law is making that situation worse, not better.

Finally, we’ll have more people who know that spending more money than you take in is a really foolish idea – something no successful business owner has ever done for very long.

They will also bring with them something that is woefully missing from the legislative chambers: a spirit of optimism. After all, to launch a small business and succeed in the marketplace, one must be an optimist.

Most have reservations about entering an environment that has become poisoned with partisanship and stalled by gridlock. They worry that their businesses will suffer without their daily, hands-on guidance, and they suspect this decision could be costly to their families and their futures as well. But, the alternative, they believe, is worse.

In virtually all discussions that NFIB had with its small-business candidates, it was evident they believed Congress and the White House had forgotten them and had abandoned the basic principles of free enterprise for political gain.

Small business owners have grown weary of the misguided efforts by those in power who have kept the economy stalled, unemployment lines growing and spread fear and confusion among consumers, investors and future entrepreneurs.

These candidates have committed themselves to restoring the core values that built the world’s greatest free enterprise system and to re-educating Washington that you can’t spend what you don’t have, and that governments don’t create jobs or generate wealth.

America should expect those of this group to offer practical ideas, such as ending ill-conceived stimulus programs, bailouts and cash-for-clunkers gimmicks to trick consumers into boosting the economy. Consumers will spend when they have real jobs and incomes, trust them, and trust small businesses to create the jobs and incomes once freed of unnecessary federal burdens.

No, these fresh faces that may soon be seen in the halls of Congress won’t solve the nation’s economic problems right away. But they can bring optimism, experience and voices of reason to fiscal policy debates, and demonstrate that small business is the true engine of American economic strength and stability.

A long and difficult task to restore the economy faces the next Congress. It is crucial that lawmakers’ attentions stay focused on what’s good for the nation, rather than trying to score political points for the next election. It is worth noting that a majority of the candidates who won on Nov. 2 did so by running on a pro-small-business message. Those that ran on that message need to hold true to it with their votes.

I expect the 112th Congress to listen closely to small-business owners in 2011 – not only because so many members will hail from the small-business community, but because they know small businesses are America’s job creators.

Topics Washington