One of the more interesting things that happens when the House and Senate are divided along partisan lines — you know, where one party holds the House and the other holds the Senate — is the way that you can have hearings on exactly the same topic in the two chambers that sound so very different.

It only stands to reason. After all, one of the reasons why Democrats are not Republicans, and vice versa, is that they care about different stuff.

That can make it seem like you really are a traveler — a space traveler — when you get to listen to what happens when such a pair of hearings takes place.

Unfortunately, it’s tough to get a full sense of that from news briefs. If you have about five hours to spare and you find political theater entertaining, I recommend that you go to the Committees’ respective web sites to listen in on the relevant hearings.

Who knows, you might find it eye-opening.

For more information:

• House Committee on Small Business
• Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• Small Business Contracting: Action Needed By Those Agencies Whose Advocates Do Not Report To Agency Heads As Required (PDF)

Here’s a real basic concept for you: businesses need customers. When businesses have customers, then they have cash flow. Cash flow enables businesses to do several things:

1. They can self-finance a lot of what they need with internal capital.

2. They can afford to borrow money, if necessary, because they have sufficient cash flow to handle servicing a loan.

3. They can justify the loan because they have the demand (i.e., the customers) to warrant expansion.

4. They can possibly actually get the loan because they have cash flow (of course, they still need good credit and collateral).

It all starts with customers. This is Business Management 101. Cash flow is king.

Which is why it’s funny to listen to lawmakers talk about access to capital as if borrowing money will return small businesses, and therefore the U.S. economy, to prosperity.

Haven’t we heard that tune before? You’d think Americans would never again want to listen to anybody suggesting that debt is what they really need.

But, here we are, with coverage of two separate hearings on small business access to capital, one in the House and one in the Senate. And, just to round out the picture, we have another of our periodic peeks at the economy, which ain’t pretty.

For more information:

• Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship
• National Association for the Self-Employed (NASE)
• House Committee on Small Business
• Econosystems.com
• The Conference Board
• National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB)