Warren Focuses On Helping Small Businesses Grow And Create Jobs
Credits her family for lessons about the needs of small businesses
SUTTON, MA -- Consumer advocate Elizabeth Warren today spoke to small business owners and leaders about the need to level the playing field to help small businesses grow and create jobs. Warren spoke of changing the rules that give unfair advantages to big businesses and hurt small businesses in Massachusetts.
"The problems facing small businesses today go well beyond the bad economy. Everyone in this room knows that long before the current recession, small businesses and the people who run them weren’t getting a fair shake in Washington," Warren told the Blackstone Valley Chamber of Commerce in the first of two speeches to business groups today. "The small business owners I know don’t have the resources to hire armies of lobbyists to protect their interests in Congress -- and they can’t hire armies of lawyers to exploit loopholes created by Congress. As a result, regulations in the United States are rigged to work for the Big Guys."
Warren said she learned to respect small businesses while she was a girl, working at her Aunt’s restaurant.
"I saw firsthand the kind of commitment and energy it takes to launch a small business and keep it going. Seven days a week, from early morning until late evening, Aunt Alice did everything from arguing about the produce delivery to filling in for the dishwasher who didn’t show up. She lived through a flood, a tornado, a drunk waiter who got into a row with the kitchen assistant and threw a few punches, and -- her worst -- the night a customer found a little green worm on the salad. She hung in there." Warren said.
"I know each small business is different, but every small business demands dedication and hard work," she said. "It’s a lesson I learned first from my Aunt Alice but one I keep learning from business people all across our Commonwealth."
Warren also discussed her efforts to ensure that community banks had a voice in the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
"I was determined to put in place the building blocks of an agency that would stand up for middle class families, and I was also determined that this agency would help level the regulatory playing field between big financial institutions and small ones," said Warren. "One of my first priorities was to connect personally with small bankers in each of our 50 states. Day in and day out, I met with the hard-working people who run community banks and credit unions. Over the course of nearly a year, I met with hundreds of people who are on the front lines in keeping a small financial institution running."
Warren has met with small business owners in Salem, Gloucester, New Bedford, among other places in the state and talked about what she is hearing and learning from them. "Life has gotten harder for small businesses in Massachusetts. For too many, the one-two punch of a tough economy and complex regulations has been devastating," she said.
"Any conversation about how to make things better has to start with job creation -- no if’s, and’s, or but’s," she said. "For small businesses to have customers, we need get people back to work. And we need to do it right now. I am running for the U.S. Senate because I think we need to put people to work rebuilding our roads and bridges, upgrading our water systems, teaching our kids, protecting our communities. "
Warren is scheduled to speak to the Lynn Business Partnership this afternoon.
