Job Creators Network held a conference call with reporters on Monday to talk about the state of small business in Joe Biden’s America ahead of his State of the Union address, including Guy Berkebile, who owns a chemical company in Pennsylvania.
“As a business owner, we’ve always had problems that we’ve had to overcome during our 25 plus years in existence,” Berkebile said of his Guy Chemical Company. “But I have never gone through a period of time where we’ve had to face so many issues that were negatively impacting our business.”
Guy and others on the call — Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the Jobs Creator Network and Stephen Moore, former Donald Trump adviser and co-founder of Committee to Unleash Prosperity — said Joe Biden’s coronavirus and economic policies have hurt small businesses.
Lockdowns, mask and vaccine mandates, and federal payments to millions of America took their toll.
“The labor participation rate is the lowest I believe since I’ve started my company in 1995,” said Berkebile, whose company employs about 180 people.
And the mask mandate has affected worker morale.
“I don’t think they understand how hard it is to work a 10-hour shift in the factory with a mask on — especially when you’re running a machine and you’re not around any other people,” Berkebile said.
Berkebile said that the cost of doing business has also risen under the Biden presidency.
The cost of some of the materials needed to make the products he makes has gone up 600 percent.
As has the price for electricity.
“We do use a lot of electricity” Berkebile said. “And we’ve seen our electrical rates go up approximately 20 percent at Guy Chemical over the past year.”
“We’re paying about $15,000 a month,” Berkebile said.
Breitbart News asked if, given the current war in the Ukraine, Biden will focus at all on climate change, given the brewing global oil crisis and Biden seeming still resistant to rebooting U.S. fossil fuel production to restore energy independence.
“Let me put it this way,” Ortiz said. “If he does, boy, we’ve got a bigger problem than ever. Because it shows just how out of touch he really is.”
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