Obama's recovery example

TOLEDO, OH (WTVG) -- A north Toledo restaurant is closing after nearly four decades. New Chet's on Manhattan got a little attention from President Obama when he visited last week, but even the president couldn't save this business.

Obama used this as an example of how his bailout of the Auto industry is helping small business- but only 7 days later the place goes belly up!

I'm afraid this actually is a good example of Obama's policies. If this is what he thinks is helping the country- maybe he should reconsider.

Funny thing is - the owner actually says in the article what finally killed his business- a government regulation!

Business began to boom. People come to Chet's for good ole home cooking. John Hartman says, "It's always been a great place for breakfast and lunch too. It's like homemade food. They do it right and they remember you."

Owner Richard Lawrence says in 2008 things changed. That's when he was shot. He recovered, but couldn't handle the work. Lawrence hired people to do jobs he once did. Richard Lawrence says, "I did most of the day cooking, that hurt. With the smoking ban, that hurt us. I never realized how bad it hurt us. I thought we'd overcome it, but we never did."

During President Obama's visit to Toledo last week, he gave credit to auto bailouts, specifically Chrysler for saving small businesses locally. President Obama said, "This plant indirectly supports hundreds of other jobs right here in Toledo. After all, without you, who'd eat at Chet's, or Inky's, or Rudy's?"

But the Lawrences say it was too late. "When they were going full blast, it was wonderful, but when they opened, closed, and closed the shifts, it never came back. We used to deliver $500 a week in food, now $100."

http://abclocal.go.com/wtvg/story?section=news/local&id=8181250

Well to be fair, the smoking bans were in place long before Obama. I didn't think they hurt restaurants as much as bars but I guess every situation is different. The bad economy is the main cause imo. I've gone to some restaurants recently that used to have hour waits and now you stroll in to see them half empty. Restaurants are a luxury and not a necessity so they are very vulnerable to a crappy economy.

Yes I know smoking bans were in place before Obama- but this owner says his business never recovered after the ban. It was that regulation that killed the business according to the owner.

Yes the bad economy is hurting food establishments - but the backlog of regulations that these kinds of places have to deal with are not helping either.

Obama mentioned this place by name, as an example of how his bailouts are "saving" jobs in small businesses. To me this is an example of how dis-connected he is to the actual economy we live in, and the issues that real small businesses have to deal with every day.

Obama's economy is killing small business. Obama's policies are killing them too. Instead of removing regulations that might help a business like this one- the democrats both nationally and locally keep adding more of them.

BearMtnHIB wrote: Yes I know smoking bans were in place before Obama- but this owner says his business never recovered after the ban. It was that regulation that killed the business according to the owner.

Yes the bad economy is hurting food establishments - but the backlog of regulations that these kinds of places have to deal with are not helping either.

Obama mentioned this place by name, as an example of how his bailouts are "saving" jobs in small businesses. To me this is an example of how dis-connected he is to the actual economy we live in, and the issues that real small businesses have to deal with every day.

Obama's economy is killing small business. Obama's policies are killing them too. Instead of removing regulations that might help a business like this one- the democrats both nationally and locally keep adding more of them.

Agreed, I just mentioned the smoking thing because it was underlined and seemed to be the main reason for the restaurant to go under. We are getting buried in regulations, fees, and taxes, and now the looming health care mess which nobody knows what the costs will be to businesses. We could save this country with simplicity but we are controlled and hampered by beaurocracy.