A story to tell pro-Bush small business owners [View All]

I got a phone call yesterday. It was from the groomer I used to take my dog to.

Like most dog groomers, hers is a small business. She and her employees do excellent work and are well regarded in our community. She's one of the few willing to handle cocker spaniels, notorious biters but with high-maintenance coats, so when she realized it had been over a year since she had seen my cocker she thought she should call.

I told her that shortly after his last visit, I had lost my job. I now have a new one, but it pays only two-thirds of what the old one did. I had to invest in some extra dog-grooming tools and he looks nowhere near as nice as he did when he was getting regular professional fur care, but his coat and skin are healthy. It's just not in the cards for us to come in, no matter how much I would prefer to do so.

The answer obviously astonished her. I was tempted to ask her how she was voting this election, but I thought that perhaps even if she's a Bush supporter, I should just let the reality of the situation soak into her.

Where do Bush-supporting small-business owners think small-business income ultimately comes from if not from the wages of the people in the community? Why are they worrying about what they'll pay in taxes on income they'll never receive because their former customers don't have enough income themselves to hand over any to them?