Sometimes, it can be sad-but-funny to watch when ideology comes face to face with reality.

I got to witness a moment like that when I reviewed the video archive of that House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing I mentioned in one of this week's articles.

You see, small business owners are supposed to hate taxes. All you have to do is mention the word to them, and their hair is supposed to catch fire and their heads explode shortly thereafter.

The only problem with that theory is that small business owners are generally profoundly practical people. When admirers start waxing lyrical about the American Dream, they sometimes forget that this particular dream requires the dreamer to have his or her feet firmly planted on the ground.

So, when questioned about the 8% play-or-pay provision in health care reform proposals — which the questioner deliberately referred to as a surtax on employment — the small business owners present calmly pointed out that it wouldn't bother them so much.

After all, they explained, eight percent of wages for the employees at both these small business owners' companies would still amount to less than they were paying in insurance premiums. And that's what they really care about: lowering their costs.

There was another moment like that, when the same questioner pointed out that taxes on the top 10% of earners (those making more than $350,000) would be increased under the proposal. He asked the small business owners if it would bother them that their personal income taxes would be going up.

They said the same thing that microbusiness owners always say when this subject comes up: "It won't bother me. I've never made that kind of money."

Now, it is entirely possible that another hearing before another committee would have produced the sorts of witnesses who would have gratified that particular questioner with answers that reinforced his pre-existing ideas.

If you watch enough of these hearings, you see it fairly frequently. The Committee Member will question their own witness or someone who they can tell from prepared testimony already agrees with them. They will phrase questions in such a way as to get the witness to make their favorite points for them. It is all for the sake of the record.

But we have to be glad that didn't happen in this case, because nobody learns anything that way, do they?

And lawmakers still have a lot to learn about small businesses.