If you're feeling inclined to be paranoid, there's plenty of fodder for you in this week's microbusiness news.

Congress has dozens of ways at its disposal to let us know that microbusinesses are not important, and they use every single one of them when the opportunity presents itself.

So, for that matter, does the President.

And, while the folks at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue may regularly forget about microbusinesses when it's time to dispense policy goodies, they remember us quickly enough when they feel a need to appear muscular and punitive.

Yes, if you want to look at it that way, it can often seem as if policy makers love to ignore microbusinesses, when they're not kicking us around instead.

Then, when they want to take a break from doing that stuff, they start talking about how much they love small businesses — the engine of the economy, you know.

Frankly, the rampant hypocrisy is enough to turn your stomach.

Most of these charmingly two-faced politicians have been touring our communities this month, trying to convince us that they deserve to keep their jobs. This is the time when we have all sorts of excellent opportunities to let them know that we intend to hold them accountable for all of the above.

Except, of course, that we don't.

We don't hold them accountable. Heck, we don't even say that we're planning to hold them accountable and leave them to decide whether it'd be worth it to try to call our bluff.

If microbusiness owners and their employees, as a group, are going to throw away their power as constituents, then we all might just as well take to wearing the proverbial "kick me" sign on our backs.

Microbusinesses don't have lobbyists and we don't have political action committees. We have something much more important. We have our votes.

All we have to do now is use them.