I complain a lot, don’t I?

I spend a lot of my time looking at legislative proposals, largely for the purpose of pointing out how and why they are inadequate — at least, from a microbusiness perspective.

Small business policy that is good for microbusinesses is a pretty rare thing and there’s a reason for that.

Small business policy that is good for microbusinesses is hard.

During a Microbusiness Conversation last month, when the issue of sound public policy to help microbusinesses came up, here is how they described the essential policy challenge:

“What do you need? And can somebody afford to give that sort of help and can somebody pay for it?”

Those insightful words fell from the lips of Dr. Zolten Acs, chief economist for the SBA Office of Advocacy, and he’s right. This is the essential policy challenge for microbusinesses.

It’s harder to answer these questions than you might think.

That’s why I cringe when I hear somebody like SBA Administrator Karen Gorden Mills talking about giving small businesses the tools they need to grow and thrive and lead us all out of this recession that’s probably already over even if it doesn’t feel like it.

It’s unlikely that she, or anybody else in Washington, really knows what sort of tools the majority of small businesses need to thrive.

None of them are inclined to think too much about the majority of small businesses (i.e., microbusinesses) because most of them don’t grow — at least, not that way.

Besides, if a small business isn’t going to take out a loan or sell things to the federal government, lawmakers perceive very little they could do.

Helping microbusinesses is a tough sell because it is an investment rather than a direct revenue generator.

But perhaps even more than that, helping microbusinesses is a tough sell on Capitol Hill for the fairly simple reason that nobody seems to know how.

They just won’t admit it.