America is supposed to stand for freedom. Our founders fought against extreme government control. They fought and died for the privilege to construct their own lives and to support their families without government interference.

Life wasn’t as easy then as it is now. If you got sick you probably died. If you got old you did die. People relied on wits, ability, and often on the good will of others. Early Americans built a strong country filled with opportunity. They did not trust nor depend on any government for their well-being. Yes, things were harder then, but I dare say the freedom was worth it.

Sadly, as American culture continues to move away from its core value of hard work in exchange for freedom, I fear we will become more and more enslaved by our expectation of entitlements. What started out as a helping hand has become a fist around our throat, strangling us with its benevolence.

Still, it is a very seductive expectation. That is why I am pretty sure voters will elect a Democrat president. I believe the flag of ‘entitlement protection’ will wave hard enough to send us into another cycle of Democrat presidents.

Let me say this once more in case you missed my point the first twelve times I said it.

This is not what America stands for. Entitlements did not build America into a world power and give us our high standard of living. A big fat piggybank full of money borrowed from our children did not do that! The American spirit of individual enterprise built our nation into an economic giant and that is the spirit we need to reconnect with in order to salvage our country.

One of the biggest crimes I could lay at the feet of our interfering government is the crippling of small business in this nation. Stacks of regulations are strangling the small businesses that hard-working Americans stake their lives on every day.

At our club meetings we have had long discussions about the explosion of regulations that have brought small business growth to all-time lows. Each year our Federal Government creates hundreds of new rules that impact small business.

To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, hear this:

The Code of Federal Regulations has increased by over 11,000 pages in the last six years. That’s just under– and not by much – 2,000 new regulations each year. That’s 2,000 more ways to get shut down each year! What small business could possibly accommodate all those rules?

Before Attempting To Change A Thing, It Helps To Understand It First

At our next club meeting we will be discussing in detail the impact of these regulations on small businesses.

If America is to become self-sufficient again, we need to reclaim our free-enterprise system. We need to support small business growth, get people back to work and fire up our free enterprise spirit at the ground level.

Everyone knows that the government is broken. We see the gridlock caused by polarized partisan parties. We see how this dysfunction has trickled down into our everyday lives.

But America still has a lot of spunk. America is building momentum to take itself back. We just need to remember how it feels to fight for what is important.

This means business owners will need to become somewhat political if they mean to dismantle rules written by desk-jockeys, who have never stood behind a retail counter or hired an employee or navigated insurance packages or had to cut back a single-mother to 20 hours.

If you own a small business or know someone who does, you will want to show up at our next club meeting.