How can the next presidential get the American job machine functioning again? One way is establish a policy environment that incentivizes business startups, which have fallen hard under the current administration.

President Obama tells small-business owners they "didn't build" their companies. But they know better. And they are also aware of the important role they play in employment.

Small businesses employ about half of all U.S. workers and they create the majority — by some estimates 80% or more — of the new jobs.

Rather than trying to convince entrepreneurs they're not responsible for their own success, Obama should be telling them how much he's done to make it easier to launch new companies.

But he can't. Consequently, just like businesses sitting on cash and refusing to hire due to the uncertainties spread by this White House, entrepreneurs have been sitting out the recovery that began only months after Obama took office.

"The state of entrepreneurship in the United States," laments economist Tim Kane, "is, sadly, weaker than ever."