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State of the Union and Small Business

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President Obama gave his 8th and final State of the Union address on Tuesday night. He urged us to look into the future and choose hope instead of fear.

Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future, who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, who promised to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control. And each time, we overcame those fears.

That despite all of our problems – criminal justice, economic inequality, gun violence, and terrorism – that we will prosper.

Our unique strengths as a nation — our optimism and work ethic, our spirit of discovery, our diversity, our commitment to rule of law — these things give us everything we need to ensure prosperity and security for generations to come.

And while he listed his accomplishments, he also pointed out that

That’s the big picture, but what about the small picture as in small and microbusiness?

As you can tell from the above diagram, ‘small business’ was not a focus of his speech. His first mention of business is about one-third of the way into his speech:

That, by the way, is what the Affordable Care Act is all about. It’s about filling the gaps in employer based care so that when you lose a job, or you go back to school, or you strike out and launch that new business you’ll still have coverage.

He talked about education, healthcare, wage insurance and other ways to help inequality. And while he didn’t give very many specifics, he did say

…in this new economy, workers and start-ups and small businesses need more of a voice, not less. The rules should work for them.