Is it Possible Paul Ryan is Being Lied to?

I just heard an interview of congressman Paul Ryan on NPR. According to Mr. Ryan he has been all over his district talking to business owners, managers and other so called “job creators”. Evidently, Mr. Ryan has been politely inquiring as to why these job creators have not been creating any jobs. If we are to take Mr. Ryan at face value and assume he is accurately reporting what he was told, suspending any suspicion of the dubious coincidence that what he was told by these “job creators” just happens to fit exactly with his, and his party’s agenda, we still don’t know much.

Unsurprisingly, these particular “job creators” reported that the reason they could not or would not hire more workers and expand their operations, was because of the uncertainty created by the current regulation and taxation climate. Really? So, are we to believe that lack of demand for their goods or services has nothing to with it? Are we to believe that these supposed virtuous gamblers and risk takers have simply refused to go after potential profits, because they are too “uncertain” about how they will be taxed or regulated? Smells fishy to me.

I don’t mean to call the integrity of our business leaders into question, but I’ll just throw this out there. What if they are lying? What if they realize that the reason they can’t expand is because the current market will not support it? What if they are smart enough to realize that Mr. Ryan more than likely doesn’t understand our economic dilemma any better that they do, and is unlikely to be able to improve it? Is it possible that they are just taking a shot at lowering their taxes and improving the profitability of their concerns through deregulation?

Put yourself in the typical business owner’s shoes. Your business is down or at least stagnant. There is just simply not enough demand for what you do. Now, you have this politician in your office asking you why you are not creating jobs. You have a choice to make. You could tell him the real reason you can’t expand, which is that there is simply not enough demand. Or you could take a shot at lowering your tax and regulation burden so that when or if the economy recovers, most likely independently from any cockamamie tax or deregulation scheme, you can make more money, and make it more easily. Think about it.