Few things in this world have an impact on someone’s life like that of a job. For a recent college graduate, a job is the first step toward realizing a dream; for the unemployed, it is a sense of renewed confidence; for a mother, it is the means by which she can promise her child a future of opportunities. For many, a job offers us hope, gives us purpose, and provides us the means to take care of the truly important things in life.

When we discuss jobs in the course of politics, our discourse is often relegated to numbers and spreadsheets. Our economy becomes a measure of profits and losses, rather than the individuals and families affected by it. In doing so, we lose sight of what it means for someone to lose a job, or for a business to close. Too many politicians today are guilty of that — they forget that the bottom line of a business isn’t just a bottom line; it’s food on someone’s table or the clothes on someone’s child; they forget that bad policy has real-life consequences.

As someone who hasn’t spent a lifetime in politics, I haven’t lost sight of that. On the contrary, as a medical doctor I’m in tune with the pain and suffering of my patients, never seeing them as numbers, but as a real people.

With that in mind, this week I embarked on a tour of small businesses to see the jobs Oregonians rely on to support themselves and their families. Each business brings with it, its own unique story, its own achievements, and its own hardships. Not surprisingly, most achievements are the result of perseverance and hard work, while the hardships are the consequence of an overreaching and burdensome government.

And, it would seem behind each and every hardship is a tax, regulation or policy supported by Oregon’s own senator, Jeff Merkley. Whether it’s his unabashed support for Obamacare, which has been a death knell on small business hiring; cap and trade, which would result in needless, higher energy costs; or his repeated votes against repealing the estate tax; Merkley is out of touch with the issues affecting Oregon’s small businesses.

Instead, Merkley has been nothing more than a rubber stamp for every big-ticket item that has come across his desk since assuming office in 2009. His devotion to a far-left agenda has left independent-minded Oregonians without a voice, and small business without a friend. His policies are why five years after a recession our unemployment remains above 6 percent and an anemic growth rate still plagues our economy.

I’m ready to change all that. As a former small business owner, I understand this issue better than Merkley and will do what’s best for the job creators of our state. It’s why this week the National Federation of Independent Business announced its endorsement of me, and small business owners from all across the state are getting behind our campaign. I want to ensure Oregon remains a place of opportunity, and that means ensuring that which gives us hope, gives us purpose, and provides us the means to take care of what matters, is there when we need it.

— Monica Wehby is Oregon’s Republican nominee for United States Senate. She lives in Portland.