Truth 
in politics. 
What a concept!

Deregulate Small Business 

By Kevin Barrett 

Most rules and regulations hampering small business activities should be scrapped, and the bureaucrats charged with enforcing those rules should be forced to find productive work.  

That may sound harsh. But I'm sick of hearing stories like this one about the Mennonite farmer arrested and persecuted for selling raw milk.   

Wisconsin political hero Ed Thompson was forced into politics as a last-ditch effort at self-defense after his tavern was raided for nickle-and-dime gambling.  

Madison tavern owners are currently facing persecution and prosecution if they defy the smoking ban. Why should the government tell tavern owners what they can do in their own taverns? 

When my wife and I wanted to start a catering business, cooking right out of our nice clean kitchen, we found that we would have to invest in an extremely expensive professional restaurant kitchen, and pay prohibitively expensive insurance, or face possible prosecution. That killed our interest in catering. 

The government should butt out of small business! If the government argues that a particular kind of licensing requirement or regulation is absolutely necessary, the burden of proof should fall on the government. I believe we could do without most of the current regulation of small business. 

Big business is different. We need to tax, regulate, and in some cases bust up big businesses – both to prevent big trouble (pollution, etc.) and also to maintain a level playing field for a genuinely free-market economy.

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