As someone who is pro-business and believes in the free market, I was pleased with the results of the 2014 elections. According to pundits and party officials across the state, the Republicans elected to office last fall constituted the most “pro-business Legislature in state history.” I was excited by the direction my party — the Republican Party — would take this great state.

But then I learned of new proposed regulations being forced on payday and title loan companies — regulations that would ensure that no Alabamian could access the kind of short-term loan some consumers need from time to time.

I learned that some state Republicans are introducing legislation to make these regulations a reality. I learned that a Republican administration was defending and actively lobbying the Legislature for regulations, as well as spending millions of taxpayer dollars in court to force these regulations on the industry. And just last week, President Obama himself — the leader of the liberal Democrat party — has come to Alabama to build on these far-reaching regulations.

It turns out that many Republicans are standing with him here in Alabama. Why would they do that? They are backing the most liberal president in our country’s history who rallies behind every liberal policy known, including universal health care, gay marriage and illegal immigration.

During President Obama’s visit to our great state, he unfairly compared the short-term lending industry to McDonald’s. This is typical liberal “logic.” This makes it seem as if our stores are everywhere, when in fact, fast-food restaurants outnumber short-term lenders in the state by a factor of over three to one. But once again, facts aren’t allowed to get in the way of a liberal sound bite. Besides, we’re not like McDonald’s. We are an Alabama business, run by Alabamians, to provide a critical service to Alabama customers who otherwise would not have access to money they need to provide for their families.

All of that made me ask one question: Who has hijacked my Republican Party?

Make no mistake: These regulations — and the people behind it — are going to limit the rights of Alabamians to borrow short-term, small-dollar loans and a company’s willingness (and right) to lend it. That is not only bad for Alabama consumers, business owners, and employees, but also goes against every free-market principle our party is supposed to represent.

These regulations reek of anti-business principles. It will not only infringe upon consumers, but it’ll hurt Alabama-owned small business owners like me, too, who collectively operate over 1,000 short-term loan stores in this state and employ over 3,000 people. Thanks to this anti-business decision by Montgomery, half of these stores — and half the jobs they represent — could disappear. Our customers will be forced to turn to unregulated options for borrowing money, which includes online lenders (which already make up over 50 percent of the industry) or lenders on Indian tribal lands. It will not stop or slow the industry —  just the part of the industry that is already heavily regulated. The Republican majority in Montgomery needs to do what it campaigned on and stop joining the crusade of liberal, anti-business, anti-consumer groups in this state.

Our leaders should not aspire to be like the big-government Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Washington, which is set to recklessly create harmful regulation and red tape without thinking of the consequences.

Bring back the pro-business, pro-consumer Republican Party I joined. And let’s move Alabama forward — not backward.

Roy Hutcheson is a conservative business owner in Alabama with 85 short-term lending stores.