I’ve always viewed Washington, D.C. and Silicon Valley in a similar way. Both places are more a state of mind than an actual region. The area on the left coast is focused on innovation and making money. The one on the right coast is focused on power and spending money.
Last week, I spent four days in Washington, D.C. with Women Impacting Public Policy, a national organization of more than half a million women business owners. I arrived on Wednesday for two conferences and Capitol Hill briefings aimed to increase awareness of women-owned businesses and their impact on the U.S. economy.
Statistics released in a study commissioned by WIPP, the National Women’s Business Council, the Center for Women’s Business Research and Wal-Mart showed women-owned businesses produce employment for more than 23 million people in the United States. If women-owned businesses were their own country, they would have a greater GDP than Canada, India, and Vietnam combined – the 5th largest GDP in the world – ahead of France, the U.K. and Italy.
Does anyone remember when California was the 5th largest economy?
The President’s flee of the country to lobby for Chicago’s Olympic bid dominated the news and just about every conversation. Never mind that unemployment ticked upwards to 9.8% – the President was on a mission to bring jobs to his home city and by golly, we were there to see it. Health care, the issue we were sent to lobby Congress on, was on a medium burner.
On Thursday, President Obama visited my hotel. He arrived about two hours after I left and then jumped on a plane to make the final plea in Chicago’s Olympic bid.
At the conference, I sat next to two women-business owners from Chicago, who eagerly awaited the blackberry “buzz”. In the first round of voting, Chicago received 18 votes, coming in last.
Austen Goolsbee of the President’s Council of Economic Advisors talked to conference attendees about the fact that most of the stimulus money isn’t even out the door yet and compared today’s recession economy with that of 1929. One of a half a dozen of Obama’s “Chicago mafia” who spoke, Goolsbee has a rye sense of humor but got serious when he acknowledged that small businesses pay up to 50% more than large businesses for health care.
He acknowledged that small business has had an active lobby in Washington arguing for tax credits and a pool for small businesses so they can pay more competitive rates, which WIPP supports. He also cited Silicon Valley’s John Doerr who he said sees investment in technology, innovation and green jobs as “bigger than the Internet.”
Our visits to Capitol Hill included briefings from U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Senator Jean Shaheen (D-NH), and U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA), the Chairman of the Senate Small Business Committee. Landrieu – who is clearly hearing a lot from businesses on health care, stated – “If I had my druthers, we would separate employment from health care.”
Senator Landrieu also cited some economic stats on health care – the United States is spending twice as much on health care as other developing countries – more than on food – but according to the studies she saw, U.S. outcomes weren’t twice as good.
Senator Landrieu also talked about the federal FEMA response after Katrina, citing several other areas with levee problems. First on her list: The Sacramento Valley. Seems the U.S. Senator from Louisiana is also focused on our water and infrastructure.
Side note: There appears to be a great deal of interest from women and men in our nation’s capital on the candidacies of Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina. They’ve seen the negative press crescendo against these women and they don’t seem to care. Republicans and Democrats appeared intrigued by these amazing women and what they might accomplish if elected.