Oregon Public Broadcasting

A Portland business owner joined President Obama Wednesday at a house in Virginia, to highlight the effect health care legislation has had on small businesses.

Jim Houser runs the Hawthorne Auto Clinic. He was invited to the event because he’d told federal health officials that this year’s health care overhaul was going to save his business a lot of money.

Houser says he repeated that to Obama.

Jim Houser: “What happened was I told him our situation – how much our premiums had gone up, $90,000 dollars a year, 20 percent of payroll, and that we were going to get a $12,000 tax credit.  Like a time machine, it’s going back two years. And he said ‘I’d like you to come right over here to the press pool – tell them what you just told me’.”

Houser’s story also caught the attention of Senate Democrats. He says he was planning to fly back, but extended his stay when senators asked him to attend a press conference on health care.