Small businesses can’t afford – and won’t settle for – being sidelined during the run-up to this fall’s presidential election.  Today, Sensible Regulations member and Virginia business owner Michael Gorman amplified the concerns of the small community in an interview with CBS correspondent Susan McGinnis.  Once the employer of 44 workers, Michael now runs his home building company by himself and one part-time employee.

As the interview demonstrates, small business issues have taken center stage in the national dialogue, and business owners’ concerns – which greater regulation and more government intervention have only aggravated – are now shaping the presidential debate.  A recent Gallup poll found 59 percent of business owners disapprove of the President’s policies.

Today, there are more than 4,100 new regulations backed up in Washington, most of which won’t hit until after November’s elections.  If approved, those would cost over $500 billion, a cost that affect nearly all every sector of the economy and ultimately trickle down to consumers and taxpayers.  That threat and the uncertainty of when it could all come down have kept the small business community from investing and hiring.

We’ve seen where Washington’s insistence on imposing even heavier regulations has gotten us: According to Gallup’s latest report, small business confidence fell again in July to its lowest level this year; recent job growth has been so dismal unemployment actually increased earlier this summer; and the rate start-up business is at a record low.

Regulators need to focus on enforcing the rules already on the books instead of putting even more burdens on the business owners’ shoulders.  Instead of assailing small businesses, officials should work with them to create smarter, constructive rules that limit costs.  And agencies need to transparently review all regulation – both pending and those already on the book – to revise or scrap those that don’t move the country forward.

Small businesses and the economy can’t afford more of the same – yet alone a wave of even more costly regulation.  Join the StoptheTidalWave.org campaign to stand with small businesses and urge the President to avert a regulatory tidal wave.