For decades small business owners have been telling anyone who would listen that they need health-care reforms that lower costs. But President Obama and his allies in Congress pushed through a law that will dramatically raise health-care costs and increase the overall cost of doing business. What’s more, the federal mandate requiring that nearly all U.S. residents carry health insurance by 2014 seriously threatens our basic constitutional rights and individual freedoms.

WSJ: Obamacare vs. Small Business

P.S. @jaketapper is now telling us that calling Obamacare “Obamacare” is now considered pejorative. I can’t imagine that being said if either Obama or HCR had more than 50% approval. Mr. O. is clinging to the HCR stone as it sinks, so getting dainty over semantics won’t improve things IMHO.

Steve Wynn - For the Win!

Steve Wynn was part of a panel discussion on Fox News Sunday, hosted by Chris Wallace. Also on the panel were Democratic Governor  Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan and economist Mark Zandi.

The full transcript is here. Hat’s off to Lexonex for the similar batch of quotes.

Steve had some scalding insights into what is really going wrong with the U.S. economy, and why we’re not seeing a strong recovery. You’ll find it refreshing to hear someone who has actually created jobs go against the tide of neo-Keynesian macroecono-babble pouring through the news shows and opinion pages.

In other words, if you want to know what’s going wrong in a free market capitalist economy, ask a capitalist:

On whether we are beginning to see a turnaround (Nevada and nationwide):

No, in the sense that I think that the priorities of the administration should have been more directly focused on job creation from the day of the inauguration forward. That’s the thing that changes America.

People will buy cars in Governor Granholm’s state. They’ll buy homes they can afford. They’ll shop and they’ll have a positive attitude towards tomorrow when they’ve got a job.

Health care and all of — and all that other stimulus should have been held back, and the priority should have been job creation. And the most powerful weapon and the tool that the government has for that is its tax policy.

They seem to be going in exactly the opposite direction. And if the government had used its power to restrain its tax collection, they would have given everybody who runs small businesses, large businesses, a chance to hire more people, and that could have been done in an entirely different way.

With eight or $900 billion, we could have created 4 or 500 — 4 or 5 million jobs, which would have made a big difference.

On whether we need another stimulus:

Chris, Chris, the economists have had their moment. Really, everybody who has absolutely no experience in insuring people, creating jobs, have had their moment.

And again:

The housing market — the housing market will improve when people have a job so that they can buy a home that they can afford or a car that they can afford.

The stimulus package, which is antithetical and counterintuitive to Washington, is to restrain, restrain government power. You can — the most powerful tool is tax policy.

Had the president stood up the day after he got inaugurated and said, “We’re going to pass a bill that says if you can prove to the IRS that you’ve increased your permanent employees, with health insurance, we will subsidize 30 or $40,000 of that in the form of a tax credit,” there would have been jobs created in this economy within 60 days in every corner of the economy, not just in civil construction, no, no, no, not at all.

There would have been jobs created everywhere, because businesses — you pointed out — have cut back out of fear. They’re suffering from a lack of consumer confidence. The day that that unemployment figure goes from 9.6 and climbing to 8.9 is the day that consumer confidence will return, and this country will be on its way out of the recession.

On the proper roles of government and the private sector:

Government has never increased the standard of living of one single human being in civilization’s history. For some reason, that simple truth has evaded everybody.

The only thing that creates an increased standard of living is giving someone a job, the demand for their labor, whether it’s you and I, Chris, or anybody else.

The people that are paying the price for this juggernaut of federal spending are the middle class and the working class of America. And soaring rhetoric and great speeches, with or without a Teleprompter, aren’t going to change the truth. And the truth is the biggest enemy, the biggest obstacle, that working middle class America has is government spending.

Steve was challenged by the Democrat Governor, who accused him of implying that “government is all evil,” and being simplistic and unbalanced.

I didn’t say that at all. I’m saying that the source of government revenue, the source of well-being in this country, is employment. That allows companies to pay taxes, employees to pay taxes. That’s the source here. And it’s gotten out of focus….

…believe me, ma’am, I’ve got 20,000 employees. I’ve had as many as 150,000 families that I’ve been self-insuring. There’s nothing simplistic about my approach to this problem.

On health care, and developing in China:

Well, health care, something I know about, is a complicated technical issue for which practically everybody in this administration has absolutely zero experience. It was not a priority.

Job creation was the priority from the day that this president was inaugurated. It has been eclipsed by a technical, confusing conversation in which hardly anybody has read the small print on a thing called health care.

That’s a proper subject, along with infrastructure, for a healthy economy. But infrastructure and health care are things that come later. Right now our concentration should be on job creation…

I’m grateful that I’m in China generating foreign currency. But my decision — I hired — I’m the only one in Nevada so far — I hired 5,000 people this year. My return on investment is not exactly handsome. I’ve never laid off anybody in 40 years.

But if this president and this administration and Nancy Pelosi get their way, I and all other employees — employers like myself will be hit, with my employees, with a barrage of taxes that will result in more layoffs, that will not be helpful, and will be counterproductive to the very goal that we should have as a nation.

Final Thoughts, including the money quote of the show, in my opinion (emphasis added):

[It is a] Punishing attitude — take it to the government, we know what’s best. I don’t think they do. I think these are complicated subjects. Job creation, the chance to build more cars, comes from people having a job. Focus on that simple truth. Simple truths hold institutions together. We’ve lost our focus, and that’s my opinion.

Amazing thoughts by an amazing guy. The next time you hear a pundit or economist, macro or otherwise, give you his or her insight into creating jobs, think of whether or not you can truly call it “insight” if the person has never actually created a job.

Read more about Steve Wynn on Wikipedia.

DAD 2009 Day 2

A flurry of Twitter & Blog activity is going on this morning from DAD 2009 – Defending the American Dream, organized by Americans for Prosperity. I’m collecting quotes from speakers as they are tweeted and blogged. many are not direct quotes as they are assembled from tweets. Assembling as fast as I can manage…

Steve Moore:
‘Cap and Trade–the China and India full employment act.’

Herman Cain at DAD 2009

Herman Cain:
Be aware of liberals’ S.I.N tactics:

1. Shift the subject,
2. Ignore the facts,
3. Namecall

Herman quoted by West Virginia Watchdog:

I found out I’m racist. Maybe I missed something. Maybe what they’re trying to say is I have a perfect tan.

We are crazy about liberty, we are crazy about freedom, and we’re crazy about the United States of America. That’s what we’re crazy about. We’ll show you some crazy; all these crazy people are going to show up at the polls.

Newt Gingrich DAD 2009 Day 1

Newt Gingrich:

“Yes we can but not his way.”

“Bowing to a Saudi king is NOT an energy policy”

“Hasn’t the world changed when the French are leading the charge of freedom?”

“The federal government can’t organize a vaccine for the flu, yet they want to take over our health care?”

Hugh Hewitt

Hugh Hewitt

“There is forming up an army with walkers & artificial hips to fight Healthcare.”

“We need Chris Christie to clean out the swamp that is New Jersey. ”

When the moment comes and Israel must strike Iran, we must stand with our ally Israel.

Ed Morrissey at DAD 2009

Ed Morrissey

The tax code allows Congress to limit our behaviors they don’t like and try to control our lives.

The existing tax code perfectly suits the purpose of politicians who love to manipulate it.

People spent $250B to hire professional tax preparers due to complexity of laws. This is unacceptable

It costs us twice as much to adhere to tax code than to actually pay the taxes.

“We need to revive the conversation about lowering marginal tax rates for individuals & businesses.”

“If you keep more of every dollar you earn it creates incentive to do more.”

“The President is attractive, engaging, and doesn’t know a thing about how to run an economy.”

“I don’t want less care, I want more. I want less government in healthcare. Healthcare is one of the largest employment sectors & growing.”

“This will pass if we are steadfast in our beliefs” – liberty, self governance, free market capitalism.

Photo of 9/12 March by Michael A. Beck

Image of Crowd of 9 12 Marchers by Mary Katherine Ham

What a day it was! It gives a man hope to see so many gather, peaceably, not to demand their government give them something, but to stand on principle and call their elected representatives to account for irresponsible behavior. Nothing could be more American, and if the ‘opinion elite’ have a problem with it, they need to stuff it and let this be our day. This event was uniquely American, truly bipartisan, and genuine. It was not driven by special interests, behind-the-scenes funding, or astroturf-style fakery, but by love of country and anger at our representatives’ betrayal of our trust. It will not be represented as such by the mainstream media, so look beyond their reports to see the real spirit of the event. Here I’ll sift and collect more quotes, tweets, and pictures, and link to other summaries of the day’s events…
First off, the above picture was posted by Mary Katherine Ham (@mkhammer) via Instapundit
Next up, a traffic cam shows the crowd streaming toward the capital:

Some Tweets from on the ground:

@lizblaine Sign -> “In God We Trust, Not Government”
@lizblaine #DC912 signs -> “Go Green Recycle Congress,” “I’m Not Your ATM” and “Obamacare makes me sick.”
@lizblaine Great #DC912 signs -> “The Constitution is the other document they didn’t read!” and “Bankrupt Amercia – Yes We Can!”
@lizblaine Bagdad Gibbs -> http://bit.ly/152sVf Stop! Stop! We can’t have this! “We Won.”
@lizblaine #DC912 Signs -> “Dead People May Vote But They Don’t Pay Taxes” & “Should’ve voted for Hillary”
@lizblaine Signs -> “Marx was a moron” & “It’s the Constitution, Stupid!” & “Don’t Barney Frank Us”
@lizblaine SIGN-> “Stalin called…he wants his policies BACK” Crowd chanting “No More Lies!”
@lizblaine Love this sign: “My Wallet. The only place Democrats are willing to drill!”
@lizblaine Tshirt seen at #912DC “Joe wilson for Truth Czar”
@jordangehrke #912DC best sign of the day: “The road to hell is a shovel ready project.”

These and more great shots from Bruce F. Webster:

Protesters and the First Amendment

9/12 Crowd Streaming Toward the Capitol

Update: Pink Elephant Pundit was there.

More as I dig stuff up…

I had read about the DC 9/12 rally, but I admit I didn’t think it would be a huge to-do. I got up this morning and got on Twitter, just out of curiosity, and I was flabbergasted at the at the turnout. Rumor has it they are over a million. And just imagine what it would be if times were better and more of us could afford to fly out there…

Rooftop Cell Phone Image

It’s going full throttle presently, and I figure pictures will do it more justice than anything I can write. I’m going to pull together pictures and video coming from the rally as it goes. I’ll be updating this post for the next couple of hours with images and tweets I collect from on the ground.

@vannschaffner At the Capitol Building

@brinux Racism Sign

@vannschaffner Holding up the flag

@theGOPalliance Protest Signs

@vannschaffner Holding up the Flag

@aemenefee Hands off HC Bus

@thatsright_95 At Federal Building

@beesnguns Hard Day

@ohio_tea_party Have a Staffer look up

This From @Vodkapundit:

George Addresses today's Congress

Stacy McCain just called in with a bunch more protest signs spotted on The Mall:

• Congress are you foolish enough to bet against our vote in 2010?
• If you’re not outraged you’re not paying taxes.
• Obamanomics – our dollars, no sense, trickle up poverty.
• 2009 Intolerable Acts – Cap & Trade, Bailouts, Obamacare.

@this80sgirl Don

@rst379 Obey the Constitution

@jeffdubya ACORN Field Office

Jim Demint & Mike Pence Speak

@AmandaCarpenter http://twitpic.com/hgxkn – Jim DeMint tells crowd: “Welcome to Waterloo!”

@woodkatm: Pres said if we disagree he would call us out/ Demint just said Hey Prez we are out! #912dc

@markdkelly2 #912dc DeMint “we need new leaders who will tell us the truth . . . not the audacity to say these policies won’t increase our debt”

@markdkelly2 #912dc DeMint “if you continue to stand up and speak out, we will save freedom.”

@markdkelly2 #912dc Pence, “nowhere in the Constitution will you find the word czar.”

These and more from The Corner at National Review: