Liberal Ex-Congressman Opens Restaurant, Realizes Government Regulations Suck

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It’s different when you’re on the receiving end.

The former Michigan Democratic congressman, liberal pit bull, academic, antiwar firebrand and labor-union BFF has undergone an epiphany, making him simpatico with businesses and the profit motive.

When his family approached him more than four years ago about starting Zest, Bonior became a scrappy entrepreneur. He used his congressional access to knock on every one of 435 congressional offices, dropping off a flier for Zest. He worked the Metro stations, handing out coupons. He went door-to-door, as if he were campaigning.

“We kept thinking of ways to reach out.”

He knew it was risky. Most restaurants fail within two years. But his stepson and daughter-in-law were experienced in restaurant management. In the process, he gained an appreciation for the profit motive.

“The biggest surprise is how you have to hustle,” he said. “It was an eye-opener. I always heard this when I was in Congress. ‘You should try and own a business someday, Bonior.’ So I own two small businesses with my stepson and daughter-in-law. It’s tough to make it, in terms of profit margins. But somehow you get by and you figure it out.”

Bonior said if he had the power, he would lighten up on pesky regulations.

“It took us a ridiculous amount of time to get our permits. I understand regulations and . . . the necessity for it. But we lost six months of business because of that. It’s very frustrating.”

Maybe everyone in Congress should be obligated to manage a business on the side. It might introduce a note of reality into their legislating.

It also happened to George McGovern.

“In 1988, I invested most of the earnings from this lecture circuit acquiring the leasehold on Connecticut’s Stratford Inn. Hotels, inns and restaurants have always held a special fascination for me. The Stratford Inn promised the realization of a longtime dream to own a combination hotel, restaurant and public conference facility — complete with an experienced manager and staff…

I also wish that during the years I was in public office, I had had this firsthand experience about the difficulties business people face every day. That knowledge would have made me a better U.S. senator and a more understanding presidential contender….

To create job opportunities we need entrepreneurs who will risk their capital against an expected payoff. Too often, however, public policy does not consider whether we are choking off those opportunities.

It was the choking of local, state and federal rules, regulations and mandates that forced his venture into bankruptcy. He explained:

“My business associates and I … lived with federal, state and local rules that were all passed with the objective of helping employees, protecting the environment, raising tax dollars for schools, protecting our customers from fire hazards, etc. While I never doubted the worthiness of any of these goals, the concept that most often eludes legislators is: Can we make consumers pay the higher prices for the increased operating costs that accompany public regulation and government reporting requirements with reams of red tape? It is a simple concern that is nonetheless often ignored by legislators.

For example, the papers today are filled with stories about businesses dropping health coverage for employees. We provided a substantial package for our staff at the Stratford Inn. However, were we operating today, those costs would exceed $150,000 a year for health care on top of salaries and other benefits. There would have been no reasonable way for us to absorb or pass on these costs.”

  • Randy CA

    Having spent my life as a small business owner I hate to see businesses fail; I know the blood, sweat and years that go into them. But it gives me a guilty pleasure to see rent seekers attempting to become wealth creators, fall on their faces.

    Idiots.

  • Alexbensky

    The question is why Bonior apparently never thought about this before he started his own business. I guess his confidence in his own intelligence and politically orthodox ideas caused him to think he didn’t need to.

    • Daniel Greenfield

      These people don’t live in the real world. They’re political paper pushers who run their mouths and take bribes.

      • DogmaelJones1

        I’ve often remarked to people who vote for more government regulation of business and industry that there isn’t a single item on any random politician’s desk or used by his staff that hasn’t been produced by private business: pens, pencils, paper, Post-its, chairs, rugs, dictionaries, drapes, stands, coffee machines, their clothes, typewriters, computers, blotters, calendars, doors, walls, plaster, A/C, and on and on. Yet, they take all these things and more for granted, they’re just there for the purchase or taking. That’s how they don’t live in the real world.

    • glpage

      Some people seem to have an inability to consider differing courses of action and the possible outcomes of those actions. These people have a tendency to lean left politically.

      • phone2000

        yep…the left cannot reason or think and many are in acadamia where they do not have to raise up money on their own…their pay is guarunteed

  • David

    If they knew American history they would know that the founding fathers figured this out a long time ago. A clause from the Declaration of Independence:

    “He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of
    Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.”

    Of course this is something that both conservatives and liberals could stand to learn.

    • CapitalistPig

      You HAVE to admire the Founders prose. “sent hither swarms of Officers” & “eat out their substance” Simple. but so devastating.
      You just have to sit back & wonder what King George thought when he read that.
      Sounds like ObamaCare.

  • Christopher Riddle

    Imagine that???????????????????

  • Marc Solomon

    This is what turned entertainer sonny bono from a democrat to a republican. He decided to open a new restaurant in palm springs, california. But unlike the old days where he would slough off all the details and responsibilities to someone else, he decided to do it all himself. And he ran head first into all sorts of bureaucratic, big government regulations and red tape that made no sense. He eventually opened his restaurant, but he also became a republican.

  • mendezjb

    Its often been said a Conservative is a former liberal who just got his first paycheck, or just got robbed.

    • amongoose

      He was mugged by the bureaucrats he enabled, and empowered.

    • CapitalistPig

      And some liberals are nothing more than conservatives who were just arrested!

  • NotchoDaddy8

    Bonior is a piece of feces, communist crook who would likely still be my congressman had it not been for the redistricting that included a highly Republican area and subsequently led to Congresswoman Candice Miller defeating him in 2002.
    Bonior has NEVER held a job in the private sector, first becomming a state rep in 1973 then elected to the U.S. House in 1976 and prospered tremendously until his ousting in 2002.

    He was also a supporter of the Nicaraguan communist/marxist Sandinistas who were being challenged by the freedom loving Contras……

    In 2002 the commie took an unauthorized trip to Iraq, paid for by Iraqi intelligence via a Michigan based Muslim group, headed by Muthanna Al-Hanooti, with fellow commie and Muslim sympathizers Jim McDermott and Mike Thompson and took selfies with Saddam Hussein.

    Lets see now, on his meager congressional salary/pension, he bought a place near Capitol Hill because he wanted to be near a growing, urban neighborhood and he also owns a second home near the Chesapeake Bay. Now he’s using his political influence (and monies) to create a restaurant in DC for his spawn………
    David Bonior is like herpes, you can never get rid of it……..

  • CowboyUp

    Academics often share the same lack of private sector experience, which is why many of them never foresee or, if they do, grossly underestimate the negative consequences of their ideas. Both tend to think they know a lot more about how a business should be run than people who actually run them.

  • CapitalistPig

    This liberal is even more stupid than you think………you don’t try to get government to lighten up on regulation—-you buy friends in government to regulate, or more accurately “RIG-ulate” the game in your favor!