01/25/11 Baltimore, Maryland – The president delivers his State of the Union message tonight. We’re told he’s going to say some things about the economy. We don’t yet know what those things will be…but for clues, we’ve checked out this year’s list of Lenny Skutniks.
You probably don’t remember, and neither did we, till we looked it up: Lenny Skutnik became momentarily famous in 1982 after an Air Florida plane crashed into the icy Potomac River in Washington, DC.
He dove into the river to save a passenger. Days later, Skutnik sat in the gallery for the State of the Union. President Reagan pointed him out by name and commended him.
Thus began a tiresome tradition – the president pointing to “everyday Americans” in the gallery as an example of heroism – or, more typically, as an example of why their policies are so swell.
If a president hopes to launch some new signature program, then some potential beneficiary of that program is sure to be sitting in the gallery during the State of the Union.
Looking over this year’s Lenny Skutnik list, we see 25 invited guests. They are…
- The vice president’s wife
- The president’s chief liaison to Congress
- Two corporate CEOs
- Four people connected to the shootings in Tucson
- Three service members, and one service member’s spouse
- Five students, either high school or college
- A cancer patient we’re told is benefiting from the new health care law
- Seven small business owners
So one out of four guests is a small business owner. This might lead us to wonder if the president will call a truce in the War on Small Business we’ve explored in this space from time to time. Maybe he’ll launch an initiative to address issues like these…
- Companies with 20 or fewer employees pay more than $10,500 per employee to comply with federal regulations, according to the Small Business Administration’s advocacy office
- Companies with 500 or more employees pay less than $7,500 per employee
- That gap will surely grow next year with the infamous “1099 provision” of the new health care law – requiring business owners to send IRS 1099 forms to everyone from whom they buy $600 or more in goods or services each year.
Sadly, no. Two of the invited small business owners got $500,000 in federal money to retool their part of a roofing business into a solar panel factory. Two more got $250,000 to open an organic ice cream shop.
Another supposedly saved $10,000 in health insurance premiums for his employees thanks to tax credits tucked into the health care law. And the last two own the company whose technology helped rescue the trapped miners in Chile.
Conclusion: Unless you manage to be part of a feel-good story or you’ve taken a handout for some politically correct cause, you don’t count. The War on Small Business is still on.
Addison Wiggin
for The Daily Reckoning
Addison Wiggin
Addison Wiggin is the executive publisher of Agora Financial, LLC, a fiercely independent economic forecasting and financial research firm. He’s the creator and editorial director of Agora Financial’s daily 5 Min. Forecast and editorial director of The Daily Reckoning. Wiggin is the founder of Agora Entertainment, executive producer and co-writer of I.O.U.S.A., which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, the 2009 Critics Choice Award for Best Documentary Feature, and was also shortlisted for a 2009 Academy Award. He is the author of the companion book of the film I.O.U.S.A.and his second edition of The Demise of the Dollar… and Why it’s Even Better for Your Investments was just fully revised and updated. Wiggin is a three-time New York Times best-selling author whose work has been recognized by The New York Times Magazine, The Economist, Worth, The New York Times, The Washington Post as well as major network news programs. He also co-authored international bestsellers Financial Reckoning Day and Empire of Debt with Bill Bonner.
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I remember Lenny Skutnik quite well. I was there on the riverbank that day just minutes after the plane went down. We pulled off the George Washington parkway to see if we could assist. On approaching the scene I saw a group of survivors huddled together atop the tiny bit of visible wreckage which was in open water where the plane broke through the ice, but not very far from shore, probably no more than 100 feet. I was about 22 yrs old at that time and a strong swimmer and could easily have reached those folks but there were firemen and police all along the banks yelling at everyone on shore to get back, get back. But I wondered why they were not making any visible rescue effort towards those people? I had a strong instinct to jump in and assist those people to the bank but in my youth and inexperience I felt that we should obey the authorities and clear the area so they could do their work. We moved away and it was shortly after that Lenny jumped in the water and assisted a woman. The ‘first responders’ had still done nothing for those people. To this day I still regret listening to those so called authorities. Any able adult swimmer could have reached those people with ropes and floats immediately, instead it took 45 minutes or better to get divers etc.
That was the day I learned never to put my trust in the ‘authorities’.
I wonder how many of those bussiness owners will operating in the US or plain out defunct in five years, who knows maybe sooner!