Herman Cain vs. Bill Clinton

Herman Cain, former CEO of Godfather's Pizza, made quite a debut last night as a candidate for President of the United States. I am not jumping on any bandwagon - I am particularly concerned about his apparent enthusiasm for the TARP bailout back in 2008. He seems to be trying to ride the tea party wave, but since the tea party was in large part a protest against bank bailouts, this makes little sense.

But what is worth watching is the video below from a 1994 Health Care Town Hall with Bill Clinton. Cain, speaking as the CEO of Godfather's Pizza, takes on Clinton and destroys any possibility of the Clinton health care law being enacted into law in a matter of about 6 minutes.

Early on in the discussion, Cain asks Clinton: "If I am forced to do this, what will I tell those people whose jobs I will have to eliminate."

Clinton then responds by trying to convince Cain that the costs will really not be as high as he says, and then suggests that Cain would be able to pass the cost on to his customers. After all, all of his competitors would be in the same boat. And to this comment, Cain's response is simply devastating:

In the competitive marketplace, it simply doesn't work that way, because the larger competitors have more staying power before they go bankrupt, then the smaller competitor.

This is a fantastic insight. Regulations do impose costs on large corporations, but they often have a disproportionately larger impact on smaller businesses. In other words, regulations build a competitive "moat" for the larger players by making it more difficult and more costly for the smaller competitors to compete.