August 2010
Franchising World

The President’s Column
By Stephen J. Caldeira       
  
It’s August in Washington, and it’s not just the weather that’s heating up. As the country prepares for the 2010 mid-term elections, politics are at a fevered pitch as pundits position the elections as a referendum on the Obama administration’s policies for economic recovery and job creation.
  
Voters will have tough decisions this November, but for the franchise industry, it will come down to who can help provide   the stability our economy so desperately needs. For instance, the July jobs report confirms what many economists and financial experts have been saying for quite some time—until small businesses feel some sense of certainty with the proposed regulations being discussed in Washington, and until bank credit becomes more accessible, the economy will continue to sputter and lose jobs.
  
As job creators, franchise business owners remain in the cross fires of a political agenda that increasingly threatens to stifle economic growth even further. Potential new taxes on both personal and business incomes, a continuing array of new regulatory burdens from health and energy reforms, and the failure to invest in common-sense solutions to help small businesses grow, will certainly hamper job creation.
  
This political and economic environment creates the need for a record turnout of franchise leaders at the 2010 IFA Public Affairs Conference scheduled for Sept. 13 and 14 in Washington, D.C. For the past decade, hundreds of IFA members have descended on Washington to voice opinions about bills and regulations that   impact franchising—mostly trying to keep government out of the business of small businesses. However, the environment in which we operate today is one in which the belief that more government control and involvement, rather than the free enterprise system, is the answer to most of the challenges facing our nation.
  
Take for example the fact that the government has spent trillions of dollars in stimulus efforts, mostly targeted toward existing government programs with only a fraction targeted toward small businesses. The programs that did target small businesses did not address the one issue that is of most importance—access to credit.
  
For example, IFA has advocated for months for Congress to increase the Small Business Administration maximum loan limit from $2 million to $5 million, which could create between 450,000 to 650,000 new direct and indirect jobs within the next 12 to 18 months.
  
There has been some supportive rhetoric by some in Congress and the administration over the past 18 months to increase credit access, including most recently in July by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke who said that, “making credit accessible to sound small businesses is crucial to our economic recovery and so should be front and center among our current policy challenges.”
  
However, despite these declarations, several legislative attempts to pass the loan level increase have failed. It continues to be a mystery that when opinion research shows that Americans view small business, not government, as the main engine of economic growth and job creation, Congress continues to feed big government spending programs and miss opportunity after opportunity to enact sensible solutions to increase capital access to thousands of small and franchise businesses.
  
Another example where Congress is trying to increase government’s control is a bill, known as the DISCLOSE Act, which has been passed in the House, that places one-sided, onerous restrictions on the free speech of small businesses, corporations and trade associations, while ignoring the political influence and spending of labor unions. The sponsors of this legislation admit that the bill’s purpose is to deter businesses and trade associations from participating in the political process. They are pushing this despite the Supreme Court recognizing that voluntary associations are vital participants in our public debate and that government attempts to curb participation in associations to stifle their voice, clearly violate the First Amendment.
  
These are just a few examples of how the tenets of the free enterprise system are being threatened, and if allowed to persist, they will have grave and long-lasting consequences for our   nation. As President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, “Without free enterprise, there can be no democracy.”
  
How can you help to protect democracy? First and foremost, please consider supporting FranPAC, the IFA’s Political Action Committee. FranPAC supports pro-business candidates that play a key role in helping to shape the legislative, regulatory and public policy decisions that impact small business and franchising in Washington. For more information, contact IFA Director of Political Affairs Victoria Adams at 202-628-8000 or 
vadams@franchise.org  .
  
Finally, and equally as important, it is critical for franchise businesses to be heard and seen this fall during the 2010 Public Affairs Conference. Congress needs to be reminded, in further support of IFA’s lobbying efforts, that protecting the free enterprise system, and not increased government control and spending programs, will expedite the economic recovery. If you have not made plans to attend the 11th Annual IFA Public Affairs Conference Sept. 13-14, go to 
www.franchise.org  today to register. While there is no registration fee to attend the conference, the cost of not attending could be felt for years to come. The stakes have never been higher, and the time to take action and come together as an industry is now. We hope that you agree.