C-SPAN Seminar Calls of the Week

Seems like this week's C-Span seminar caller talking point, in advance of the president's speech, is that small business people are not complaining about taxes or regulations. They are, according to these callers, talking about demand.
Spurious, no doubt. The fact that I've heard the same argument, almost verbatim, from at least 3 callers in the course of 1 week, is curious in itself.
The most generous explanation I can think of is that it is perfectly natural to ask your barber or grocer or what have you, "how's business?" The most reasonable answer during the current undeclared recession is, "Terrible. No one is spending any money. Too many of my customers are looking for work." It would be unnatural to answer that question with, "Regulations are strangling my ability to grow my business and high taxes are keeping me from hiring more workers." Both answers are very likely true, but the first one is the most likely answer to the question.


But I see little reason to be generous. Today's caller said that the folks he was talking to complained about a lack of 'demand'. Now, unless they are suffering from a lack of demand for Keynesian economists, the word "demand' is an unnatural word in that context. But it is the exact right word if you are building an argument for more federal 'stimulus' spending. So, I suspect it was made up.