The Entrepreneurial Mind

This morning I attended a small business summit sponsored by the new mayor of Nashville, Karl Dean. An overflow crowd heard remarks from the Mayor, the state director of NFIB Jim Brown, and the head of the Nashville Chamber of Commerce Ralph Schulz on the needs of the over 530,000 small businesses here in Tennessee.

Jim Brown of the NFIB talked about the need for less regulation on small business -- a good goal that boosts start-up activity. He also talked about the need for lower taxes and how -- another noble goal. However, in the same breath he warned us that the current tax shortfalls we are seeing across the country as the economy slows do not bode well for entrepreneurs. It seems that there is a disturbing pattern during times like these. Local and state governments go after more revenue from small business owners through taxes and fees to offset the overall drop in sales tax revenues.

But then came a major disconnect for me when he shifted his remarks to health care. Rather than trust the free markets that he so strongly advocates for on behalf of his small business members, Brown applauded our Governor's expansion of the state-run health insurance program to include small businesses through a new program called "CoverTN."

We are seeing this across the country. It started when large corporations such as Walmart began to lead the charge for a federal government healthcare program as a fix for the current healthcare crisis. Large corporations began to signal that they would support a nationalized healthcare policy. Then, advocates for small businesses began to fall right in line.

It amazes me that those who advocate lower taxes and less regulation on one hand are willing to support the enactment of a national healthcare plan that would create a gigantic bureaucratic black-hole of taxes on the other hand. Governmental meddling in healthcare delivery and payment in large part created the healthcare system crisis. So now we are willing to hand the entire healthcare system over to that same government lock, stock and barrel in the name of political expediency?