From the WSJ:
So why do politicians so often focus on the needs of small businesses? "From a historical perspective, there has always been an affinity, first for the small farmer, and also for the small businessman," said Kevin Kliesen, a business economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis who has studied small businesses' impact on job creation. "The U.S. views itself as an entrepreneurial economy," said University of Maryland economist John Haltiwanger, co-author of the study on job creation by company age and size. "There is some truth to this in that in the U.S. both business entry and business exit are part of the culture." Young businesses and would-be start-ups don't have quite the same political clout, and David Neumark, director of the Center for Economics and Public Policy at the University of California, Irvine, and a researcher in the field, thinks he knows why. "Who lobbies?" he asked. "Existing businesses. Businesses that don't exist yet aren't represented in the political process."

For the full story, please visit http://blogs.wsj.com/numbersguy/small-businesses-big-job-numbers-1094/.