Business Owners Hope for Reduced Regulation - FOX Nightly Scoreboard
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
FOX Business News: >>
Drew Greenblatt of Marlin Steel joins us now. So Drew, first
of all, are you hiring?
DREW GREENBLATT >>
Yes, we literally interviewed people today. We started a brand new
accountant today.
Last month we hired two mechanical engineers. We're trying to ramp up,
we're bullish, we're hoping that the future starts tipping fast.
FOX Business News: >>
Is there something that happened that made you bullish about hiring new people?
DREW GREENBLATT >>
We have a lot of backlog, we're getting a lot of orders. We're shipping.
Our niche is we ship fast, we ship high quality, we give a lot of
engineering and that's something that is appealing to many clients out there.
FOX Business News: >>
We've talked about the regulations, we talked in the first segment about how
this administration is suing a lot of businesses which, considering the
fact that they're mostly lawyers, should not be surprising I guess, but
is there anything that the administration is doing that either makes you nervous
about hiring more or that in fact is leading you to hire more?
DREW GREENBLATT >>
I think suing banks is the wrong way to go. Banks are going to be lending money
to guys like me, so if they're tied up in litigation, spending money on fines and
fees and lawyers, they're not going to be out there hustling new accounts like me.
I don't want my government going on a lawsuit binge.
I need them to focus on things like protecting me from crazy people in Iran.
We need to make sure that we're protecting our citizens.
They shouldn't be suing the people who are lending the local companies money.
FOX Business News: >>
Is there a direct connection between, putting lawsuits aside for a second, even though
that is a big part of what they do in this administration, the regulations - is there
a connection between the hiring problem that we have in this country;
we clearly have zero job growth right now. We just can't survive as an economy with that, and
the amount of regulations that they have added on. Do you see a connection, a direct
correlation?
FOX Business News: >>
Let me tell you why I ask that question. Some people in the administration, or
at least former people in the administration, don't necessarily see that connection.
Jared Burnstein who worked as a senior economic advisor for the Vice President.
He's now in private business, but that's what he did for most of the past three years.
He said, "The president is correctly committed to getting rid of outdated and harmful regulations.
But to tie it to jobs and economic growth is misguided". He doesn't see that connection.
Does that worry you?
DREW GREENBLATT >>
It's a disconnect. I'm a little company. We spend over $40,000/year in accounting fees.
We do this so that we're making sure that we comply with all the regulations, the
tax forms, the 401K forms, the IRA information. It's a tremendous burden on us.
We're doing this so we don't get big penalties and big fines.
FOX Business News: >>
Our government is more than just regulations, of course the President has enormous power
over regulations because he's the head of all those departments. He appoints the department
heads and they have their own regulatory procedure, but Congress is concerned about them.
You've just recently met with some Congress people who are concerned about over-regulation.
What did they tell you they are going to do about it?
DREW GREENBLATT >>
The hope is that they're going to start to slash regulations. If they can start to
pare back on regulations, that means that my lawyers need less time to research things.
My tax accountants can charge me less fees. This has got to be good for me and
other small businesses so we can focus on things that matter, like hiring people.
Like growing your market share. That's where the rubber meets the road.
These distractions are not productive. They don't help us fight the competitive
forces out in China and Europe, etc. that we knock sculls with every day.
FOX Business News: >>
The president would say that these regulations are necessary for the safety of the
American public. What would you tell him? Final word.
DREW GREENBLATT >>
Absolutely not. I think we could get away with 20% less, 30% less regulations and
still have very clean water. I think we can get away with less regulations and
have very healthy air. At the same time, if you make it so burdensome for us and
tie us up with red tape, we can't survive. We can't prosper the way that you need
us to.
FOX Business News: >>
And it is that prosperity that has led to the clean water and the clean air, let us
not forget. Drew Greenblatt, Marlin Steel Wire, great to see you Drew. Thanks for
coming in, really appreciate it.
