In his final State of the Union address, Obama touched on many small business issues—but the message might have been a bit empty.
The pageantry was on full display during Pres. Barack Obama’s last State of the Union address Jan. 12. Obama dialed up the American exceptionalism talk, spoke of Main Street as America’s “spirit of innovation” and called upon Congress to give small business a bigger voice in politics.
Strong rhetoric aside, the speech’s substance painted a starker picture for small business.
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“We’re disappointed that the President mentioned small business, which represents half the economy and half the jobs, only in passing and in the strangest context,” said NFIB President and CEO Dan Danner. “Small businesses have been loudly and clearly opposed to many of the very policies that he featured in his speech this evening, including the healthcare law, his energy regulations and mandatorily higher labor costs. Small businesses don’t need a stronger voice. They need someone to listen.”
Here’s more of what Obama said on major small business issues:
Healthcare: Obama declared that Social Security and Medicare were as crucial as ever. He advocated for the expansion of basic retirement benefits, the stability of health coverage through job insecurity and the reinforcement of the Affordable Care Act.
“It’s about filling the gaps in employer-based care so that when we lose a job, or go back to school, or start that new business, we’ll still have coverage. Nearly 18 million have gained coverage so far. Healthcare inflation has slowed. And our businesses have created jobs every single month since it became law,” Obama said.
Minimum Wage and Paid Leave: Obama did not address the concerns that small businesses have over increased labor costs.
“And I’ll keep pushing for progress on the work that still needs doing,” Obama said, “Equal pay for equal work, paid leave, raising the minimum wage. All these things still matter to hardworking families; they are still the right thing to do; and I will not let up until they get done.”
The gap between Main Street and Wall Street: Obama stressed the importance of alleviating the economic gap between Main Street and Wall Street. He denounced big banks, big oil, and hedge funds and expressed his goal “to lift up the many businesses who’ve figured out that doing right by their workers ends up being good for their shareholders, their customers, and their communities, so that we can spread those best practices across America.”
However, Ray Hennessey, editorial director of Entrepreneur, condemned Obama’s statement as full of “government-centric conceit” and “tone deaf” to his small-business backers.
“Here is the problem with that line: Business is way ahead of the government on this,” Hennessey wrote. “Private enterprise, big, small and startup, knows the value of fostering and protecting workers. Businesses do not routinely mistreat their workers, because they need their workers. It is basic business-management rule that your employees need to be treated even better than your own customers because these employees will have the most contact with those customers. It’s a win-win, as they say. That’s out of first-year management textbooks (and the experience of anyone who has run a business), not some government manual.”
