07/06/2006
When it comes to expensive antiques, the gift that a large crowd of small-business owners shared in Washington last month has no equal. But they had little time to reflect on a soon-to-be 230-year-old endowment proclaiming their rights to a representative government; they were exercising it to the fullest, fanning out across Capitol Hill to meet one-to-one with legislators.
In a scene similar to that in Philadelphia in the summer of 1776, America's entrepreneurs came from all corners of the nation to discuss, debate and demand fair and equal treatment from those who govern. The National Federation of Independent Business 2006 summit was a reminder to Congress that the United States stands solidly on a foundation of free enterprise, maintained and regularly expanded by those who own and operate nearly 26 million small firms.
Small-business owners account for more than half of the nation's Gross Domestic Product and generate the majority of net new jobs. They do not take lightly the gift of freedom so eloquently expressed in the Constitution. Like their forebears, the men and women who were in Washington in June are activists because they must be. Without their unrelenting vigilance and without their ever-present efforts to remind legislators and policymakers of the importance of free enterprise, the laws of the land would not be favorable to those who start and grow businesses in this country and the opportunities their efforts provide for future generations.
Like their forebears, they have formed a common bond of activism. The creation of the NFIB more than six decades ago was a direct outgrowth of the fear and frustration experienced by small-business leaders who found themselves and their operations being marginalized by the power and money of big business and big labor.
Since the founding of their purpose-driven organization, small-business owners have made their voices increasingly and prominently heard in both federal and state legislatures, demonstrating their passion for the gift that insures their many freedoms, including those of speech, assembly, petition and the pursuit of their economic destinies.
Like their forebears, NFIB's small-business activists have a broader mission than fighting oppressive taxes and burdensome regulations. Their goal is to extend the blessings of freedom by ensuring that future generations have even greater opportunities to seek their dreams of free enterprise. The message carried by those visiting Washington in June was clear: the small business agenda is America's agenda. And they are calling out to other small-business owners to join their activist ranks.
It's easy for some of those who walk the gilded, marbled halls of Congress to become awed by the trappings of politics and power. But the NFIB summiteers were there on a mission. They came to engage in those time-honored freedoms so eloquently expressed in a document that can be viewed just a stone's throw from Capitol Hill, and by doing so, they honor the most precious and costly of gifts that spawned the greatest nation on earth.
Todd Stottlemyer is president and CEO of the National Federation of Independent Business in Washington, D.C.
