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# Money and Politics: Why Small Businesses Should Fight to Unrig the System
- URL: https://ivn.us/money-and-politics-why-small-businesses-should-fight-to-unrig-the-system/
- Published: 2019-12-03T03:08:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-06-22T20:06:48.000Z
- Author: John E Palmer
- Tags: Opinion

As we close out November each year, America celebrates Small Business Saturday — where we are encouraged to patronize small brick-and-mortar retail stores during the busiest shopping weekend of the holiday season.  

These small businesses, companies that employee less than 100 people, make up 98% of the 5.6 million employer firms in the US, and more than one-third of the private sector payroll, according to the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. Yet these companies are put on the sidelines in a system that caters to the very small percentage of wealthy businesses, individuals, unions, and special interests who participate in the Washington, D.C., pay-to-play system.  

On Friday, November 29, I published an [op-ed in the International Business Times](https://www.ibtimes.com/small-businesses-are-suckers-washington-2876187?ref=ivn.us) detailing exactly why the system is rigged against the majority in favor of those who spend billions on elections and lobbying every year. Here is an excerpt:

> “Picture Washington, D.C., as one big swampy poker table where $5.7 billion was spent on elections in the 2018 cycle. Those spenders are getting what they want, but who is the sucker that’s being played?

> Is the sucker a company like Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant who spent over $11 million on lobbying in 2018? How about BP, whose annual lobby budget is $53 million? Or could it be the Wall Street banks, who are credited with influencing lawmakers to the tune of $1.9 billion in the 2017-2018 election cycle alone? Maybe it’s the teachers' unions? The trial lawyers?

> [multiyear study](https://sunlightfoundation.com/2014/11/17/fixed-fortunes-biggest-corporate-political-interests-spend-billions-get-trillions/?ref=ivn.us)

> [Citizens United](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens%5FUnited%5Fv.%5FFEC?ref=ivn.us)[McCutcheon v. FEC](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCutcheon%5Fv.%5FFEC?ref=ivn.us)

**Read my full op-ed on IBTimes.com** [**here**](https://www.ibtimes.com/small-businesses-are-suckers-washington-2876187?ref=ivn.us)