"Even brain-dead economists understand that when you raise taxes, you cost jobs."
Fresh off the epic rant from Las Vegas' Wynn CEO Steve Wynn, who said President Obama and his "weird" political philosophy are "the greatest wet blanket to business, and progress and job creation in my lifetime," the co-founder of Home Depot Bernie Marcus took direct shots at the Obama Adminstration during an interview with Investors Business Daily, backing up Wynn's claim that business is terrified of the administration and smothering regulations in an extremely volatile and uncertain economic environment. Keep in mind, Marcus co-founded Home Depot in 1978 during the Carter Administration, which gives you an idea of how bad things really are in 2011 under Obama and says he wouldn't have been able to develop his successful company today because of heavy government regulation.
Below are some of the best excerpts, but you can read the whole thing here.
I can tell you that today the impediments that the government imposes are impossible to deal with. Home Depot would never have succeeded if we'd tried to start it today. Every day you see rules and regulations from a group of Washington bureaucrats who know nothing about running a business. And I mean every day. It's become stifling.
His [Obama] speeches are wonderful. His output is absolutely, incredibly bad. As he speaks about cutting out regulations, they are now producing thousands of pages of new ones. With just ObamaCare by itself, you have a 2,000 page bill that's probably going end up being 150,000 pages of regulations.
They are all tied together. If we don't lower spending and if we don't deal with paying down the debt, we are going to have to raise taxes. Even brain-dead economists understand that when you raise taxes, you cost jobs.
I'm not sure Obama would understand anything that I'd say, because he's never really worked a day outside the political or legal area. He doesn't know how to make a payroll, he doesn't understand the problems businesses face. I would try to explain that the plight of the businessman is very reactive to Washington. As Washington piles on regulations and mandates, the impact is tremendous.
It's time to stand up and fight. These people in Washington are out there making your life difficult, and many of you won't survive. Why aren't you doing something about it? The free enterprise system made this country what it is today, and we've got to keep it alive. We are on the edge of the abyss.