How can the next presidential get the American job machine functioning again? One way is establish a policy environment that incentivizes business startups, which have fallen hard under the current administration.
President Obama tells small-business owners they "didn't build" their companies. But they know better. And they are also aware of the important role they play in employment.
Small businesses employ about half of all U.S. workers and they create the majority - by some estimates 80% or more - of the new jobs.
Rather than trying to convince entrepreneurs they're not responsible for their own success, Obama should be telling them how much he's done to make it easier to launch new companies.
But he can't. Consequently, just like businesses sitting on cash and refusing to hire due to the uncertainties spread by this White House, entrepreneurs have been sitting out the recovery that began only months after Obama took office.
"The state of entrepreneurship in the United States," laments economist Tim Kane, "is, sadly, weaker than ever."
In a paper for the Hudson Institute, Kane cites a Bureau of Labor Statistics journal that says, "New establishments are not being formed at the same levels seen before the economic downturn began, and the number is much lower than it was during the 2001 recession."
Using Census Bureau data, Kane determined that startup jobs per 1,000 Americans were steady under both Bush presidencies and that of Bill Clinton - averaging about 11.1. The range was from 11.3 under the first President Bush to 10.8 under the second. The rate during the Clinton years was in between at 11.2.
It's a different world today, though. Under Obama, the rate has plummeted to 7.8 startup jobs per 1,000 Americans. While the trend was already falling under the last years of Bush,
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