On the recordNovember 16, 2011
I want to thank my friend from Texas. Thank you so much for allowing me to join you on the floor today. I spent my entire adult life running my own business, so this is something that I've had the opportunity--or maybe the misfortune--to deal with firsthand. I found it interesting that, just a few weeks ago, on October 25, Politico ran an article which said right here: ``Regulations: Top Issue for Small Businesses.'' In fact, they cite a Gallup Poll that, indeed, 41 percent of small business owners said that government was somehow related to the biggest problem facing their companies. More small business owners view the costs of complying with government regulations as a bigger problem than any other issue. I've heard this time and time again. Just recently, I was up in northern Wisconsin, in Rhinelander, Wisconsin, where three other Members of Congress and myself held an all-day session with the timber industry. We invited Chief Tidwell, from the U.S. Forest Service, to come in to talk about harvesting timber in our national forests. I had a timber manager come up to me who harvests timber up in the Wisconsin North Woods. She said to me, Congressman, I want to show you something. If I do a timber sale here that's regulated by one of the counties here in northern Wisconsin, this is the contract that I have to fill out to harvest timber. That's the county contract. Then she said, But do you know what, Congressman?…
