I’ve been a small business owner in Maine for 32 years, doing custom woodworking. Since I opened my business in the early ‘90s we’ve been through a lot, including the Great Recession and the COVID-19 pandemic. Things have been tough, a lot of times. But there has never been a moment when I said: “You know what? I’m just going to stop doing all the things that make my business work, stop paying my employees, and see how things shake out.”
Because that would be ridiculous. I value my business – it’s my life’s work. I have customers who depend on me to meet my obligations. And I have employees who depend on me for their livelihood.
No matter who we are, where we’re from or what we do, most of us believe that people should do their jobs. That’s why it’s so difficult to comprehend that, since I started my business, Congress has allowed just that to happen four times, Four. And every time, it created chaos and instability.
My business survived the pandemic, and just when we were beginning to recover, the cost of living began to rise precipitously. The last three years have been incredibly hard. So why make things harder now?
Let’s look at what’s happening: Far-right House Republicans are fighting among themselves, and although they say they don’t want a shutdown, they’re not acting like it. They’re playing political chicken, and as usual the people who suffer the most will be the most vulnerable.
People who use SNAP (about 1 in 9 Mainers) and WIC (about 18,000 people in Maine) to avoid having their families going hungry will have their benefits jeopardized. Also, although this doesn’t apply in Maine, Head Start programs serving 10,000 kids could lose funding. Maine’s nearly 12,000 federal employees will also be at risk of having their pay delayed.
As someone who owns a small business, it also concerns me greatly that, in the event of a government shutdown, that the Small Business Administration would be forced to stop processing new business loans for small businesses. Any interruption in financing can be disastrous for a small business, and the inability to, say, buy a needed piece of equipment at the right moment can mean the end. That’s tragic, and it doesn’t need to happen.
And then there’s the ripple effect: Shutdowns can have strong negative impacts on the economy, creating instability that’s hard for everyone to come back from.
This situation, as always, was avoidable. Last spring, Congress passed a deal (again, at the last moment and under threat of a default) that made it harder for hungry people to get benefits that would help them buy food while increasing military spending. Now far-right Republicans in the House want to make even more cuts that will hurt struggling people, and they seem willing to derail the country to do it.
I am happy to say that Maine’s House members, Reps. Chellie Pingree and Jared Golden, are not part of the far-right Republican contingent.
As such, I urge them only to try to impress upon their colleagues the importance of keeping the government open, honoring the deal they previously made, and not making further cuts to the programs that help so many Americans to make ends meet, give our kids a good start – and enable small business owners like me to prosper.
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