When you look into the eyes of a small business owner, you can see the pride in what he has accomplished and you can sense the bond he has to his employees and community. When you listen to a small business owner, you can feel their commitment to the American dream. They understand the very American notion that personal sacrifice and loyalty lead to success, not only for themselves, but also for those they employ. And they understand that hard work can lead to their version of the American dream.

As I sat and listened to small business owners from across the 3^rd District during a series of small business roundtables recently, there was a sense of frustration and, quite honestly, foreboding about the lengths to which the government goes to thwart that American dream. To many of these folks, the government is now in the business of rewarding those who are willing to take from society and punishing those who want to give back. For many of them, the American dream of small business success has become a bureaucratic nightmare.

These small business owners talked to me about overbearing, counter-productive and downright punitive government regulation that keeps them from growing and hiring new people. And many of these same folks talked about the president’s health care law that has forced them to either reduce employee hours or simply let people go. There was a clear sense that government is working against them and all they want is the right to do right by themselves, their workers and their communities.

One small business owner told his story of how he has been forced to reduce his full-time workforce by 60 percent and has only been able to stay afloat with the help of outside contractors. When he considers hiring new people, government regulations and lawsuits are foremost in his mind. It was not a unique story. Another small businessman talked about a case in which his business received a clean audit from a federal agency one week and fined two weeks later, raising the possibility that as a “repeat offender” his business would be targeted in future inspections. In the end, it became even clearer that the government isn’t willing to work with many small businesses, but instead works against them.

There also is the case of small community bankers who have been forced to look longtime customers in the eye and reject loan applications because they are being forced to comply with new burdensome regulations that are driving up costs and limiting loans banks can offer. As one small community banker stated: “government has made “bank” a four-letter word.

We often forget that small businesses often foster a family atmosphere because everyone has a stake in a company’s success, from the workers families to the communities they are located in. Bureaucrats in Washington don’t have to look any of these folks in the eye. They don’t know what it takes to make a payroll, or to count on a small business for a paycheck. They don’t know what it takes to provide health care benefits, and they don’t understand the impact the president’s health care law is having on workers.  These bureaucrats certainly don’t understand the dynamic it takes for a small business to survive, where small business owners and their employees work together as a family. Small business owners and employees understand the impact of the heavy handed rules dictated by the U.S. Labor Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Health and Safety Administration, just to name a few.

As vice chairman of the Small Business Committee and a former small businessman myself, I have spent the better part of my time in Congress fighting federal agencies and their paper-pushing bureaucrats. And after seeing and hearing from small business folks on the frontline of this bureaucratic assault, it makes me want to work even harder on their behalf, and on behalf of the workers who depend upon these businesses to support their families and communities. We must protect the American dream and we must protect the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and stamp out economic tyranny, wherever it exists, including within our own government.

CONTACT US: As always, for those of you with Internet access, I encourage you to visit my official website. For those without access to the Internet, I encourage you to call my offices in Jefferson City (573-635-7232) Washington, Mo. (636-239-2276), or Wentzville (636-327-7055) with your questions and concerns. If you want even greater access to what I am working on, please visit my YouTube site, Facebook page, and keep up-to-date with Twitter.