Family-owned businesses are a forgotten constituency

During the 1992 presidential campaign, then-candidate Bill Clinton famously intoned, “I feel your pain,” reassuring voters he understood what they were going through. Since then, similar statements of empathy have become a staple for politicians; however, it does not always ring true with every constituent.

Take small business owners, for example.

Most elected officials have no idea what it is like to risk everything you have or to struggle to meet payroll for your employees and their families as waves of new regulations, higher taxes and added permit fees threaten to drown you and your busine...