What is the government’s role in building businesses and creating jobs?

During a campaign speech in 2012 President Obama stated “If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.” (Jacobson, 2012, Para. 4). You can watch the excerpt from the speech here: 

Contrast this with Presidents Trump’s pro-business policies: http://nypost.com/2017/01/25/stock-market-soars-amid-trumps-pro-business-moves/

What is the government’s role in building businesses and creating jobs?

Obama’s business policies were considered anti-business. His policies made it harder for small business to thrive because of his support for big labor unions (Barreto 2015). On the contrary, President Trump’s policies are considered pro-business.  Trump has met with business executives to discuss cutbacks on taxes and regulations in order to “jump-start” the economy. Trump has also extracted the US from a trade agreement with Pacific Rim countries, vowed to begin re-conferring NAFTA, and has restarted two pipeline initiatives that would bring thousands of jobs back to the United States (Moore 2017).

The government exercises its authority through permission, contract enforcement, consumer protection, employee protection, environmental protection, taxation, and investor protection. Most businesses need to register with a state government to operate.  This purpose of a registration is to outline the monetary responsibility of the owners of the companies. The registration further permits the government to supervise companies to implement its other purposes in the business world. Furthermore, the government enforces contracts between other businesses. The government also provides protection of the customer or consumer when the business breaches a warranty, harms the consumer in some way, and ensures proper labeling of appropriate products. Additionally, agencies, provided by the government, ensure employment protection. The government also has the authority to tax all types of businesses and mandates that companies make financial information public (Greechie 2017).