The people's representative?

I was recently contacted by Tim Walberg's office to discuss how regulations are affecting our business. The conversation went something like this.

Staffer: Mr. Hansen, we have a short survey that we are giving Michigan businesses about regulations that I wanted to see if you would be interested in participating in. Also after the survey you will be allowed to leave a message with any additional thoughts.

Me: Sounds good.

Staffer: What regulations are giving your company troubles?

Me: None really. We are compliant with the regulations for our company both State and Federal.

Staffer: Oh. OK. Well I guess I can skip a bunch of questions here since they are mainly all about the difficulties Michigan businesses are experiencing with regulations.

Staffer: Well actually it looks like that is all we have for you today. Is there anything else you would like to share with Representative Walberg?

Me: I have an issue with Mr. Walberg's stance on Capital Gains taxes but it sounds like that is not really what this call is about.

Staffer: No. Not really.

Me: The only other thing I would say is that the recent obsession with tax cuts for companies is not something we support and really has no benefit for us as far as hiring new employees. We noticed an increase in business from programs like Cash for Clunkers and would prefer see more programs like this.

Staffer: OK. Well, I appreciate your time. Have a good day.

This survey was specifically set up to take a perceived problem of Mr. Walberg and find examples of it, not to understand the problems that businesses within his district would like to see addressed. I had always assumed that being a Representative meant that Mr. Walberg would be interested in how he can help represent the concerns of our business not how our business can help represent his concerns.

On a side note I assume there must have been a glitch in their system since I was never given the chance to leave a message with my additional thoughts.