I have nothing but the utmost respect for entrepreneurs who put their life savings on the line to start or buy a business. It’s a gutsy thing to do.
But many independent retailers are having problems. Those on Durham’s Ninth Street are suffering from the economic downturn as much as anyone. I’d wager that 95 percent of the business owners on Ninth Street are liberals who voted for Obama, so they’re suffering at the hands of someone most of them probably supported in 2008.
I noticed in a story in The Herald-Sun today that the economic downturn is treated almost as an act of God, like an earthquake, a tsunami, or a hurricane. Government, least of all the incumbent president, is not mentioned. Nor are the Democratic housing policies that fueled the economic wildfire. This is the way it’s done when the incumbent is a Democrat.
Imagine this story about Ninth Street if Reagan or Bush were in office. Do you think the suffering business owners would have refrained from placing the blame in the Oval Office. I don’t think so.
For the sake of these businesses, I hope Obama realizes soon that money taken from individuals and businesses in taxes means less money in the economy, and that he changes the job-killing tax-and-spend policies he’s pursued for two years.
