RSS Feed Archive for the 'Small Business' Category
There is a lot of talk in our nation’s capitol about job creation. The President held a “jobs” summit last week. It is clear that more needs to be done to create more jobs in the country – but if you think the answer to our economic woes will be solved by folks in Washington, DC, think again.
For all their talk of creating jobs, the Administration and Congress has done little for our small businesses – those who are actually in a position to create jobs. More government spending doesn’t result in more jobs, just look at the so-called stimulus bill that was passed earlier this year.
Small businesses can’t seem to get a break from Washington. The health care bill is moving through Congress and it would impose added costs on our small business owners, mandating that they provide their employees with health care. Legislation to mandate paid sick leave is gaining steam on Capitol Hill. And, now Congress is fast tracking legislation that would create a Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA) that would further regulate the flow of capital.
Specifically, the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency would assume regulatory responsibilities related to consumer finance now performed by other federal agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Comptroller of the Currency, the Director of the Office of Thrift Supervision, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA). The role of the federal government in determining what financial products consumers can access would grow.
Congress is at it again, using the excuse of the swine flu to mandate paid sick leave. This time the pig’s nose is under the tent.
Last week the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on a proposal, H.R. 3991, the Emergency Influenza Containment Act. If passed, this bill would require employers with as few as 15 employees to provide five days of paid sick leave per 12 month period to all full or part time workers who are sent home by their employer or directed to stay home by their employer because of contagious illness such as the H1N1 virus. The Senate also held a hearing on the issue.
The estate tax was debated on Capitol Hill last week and the NCPA had a front row seat. The House Small Business Committee held a hearing “Small Businesses and the Estate Tax: Identifying Reforms to Meet the Needs of Small Firms and Family Farmers” where I testified about the need to eliminate the estate tax because it is:
- ANTI-family- Does not allow parents to pass their hard work and wealth on to their children
- ANTI-farm- Farms are especially vulnerable because they hold vast amounts of land which are subject to the estate tax as they are passed from generation to generation
- ANTI-small business- Hurts small businesses that don’t enjoy the same tax shelters and benefits as large corporations
Small business owners and family farmers have large investments in infrastructure and many don’t have the large capital assets they need to pay the tax, and many times are forced to sell the business just to meet their financial obligations.
Our small businesses are struggling. They are struggling to keep their doors open, their employees paid and access to capital flowing. They don’t need any more taxes – not now and not when they die. What do you think?
On October 21, the President announced new measures that he claims will be part of an ongoing effort to help small businesses access credit and create jobs. At the heart of the proposal is to have the government make more loans available to our small businesses.
The three main components include: take further steps to provide small businesses with access to credit by supporting community bank lending through the Financial Stability Plan; seek legislation to increase maximum SBA loan sizes to allow more businesses to access the credit they need; and convening a Treasury-SBA Small Business Lending Conference to work with regulators, lenders and Congress to ensure credit is available to small business. Do we really need more conversations on the issue? Let’s get something done.
There is a new Fortune 500 company in Washington, DC and it is called the federal government.
October 3rd marked the one-year anniversary of the largest government bailout in U.S. history. The passage of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) gave our government (and taxpayers) a majority ownership stake in most of our financial services companies. This is one anniversary we shouldn’t be excited to celebrate.
In the year since the TARP was launched, things have gone from bad to worse. In the last nine months we have watched as the federal government took over General Motors; passed a “stimulus” bill that did little to stimulate small business or our economy; transformed itself into a used car salesman with the Cash for Clunkers program; and it is now working around the clock to take over our health care system.
The President’s plan to further regulate Wall Street is meeting some resistance on Capitol Hill, from those in his own party. Just like health care, the more people learn about the details of the legislation, the less they like it.
The House Financial Services Committee continues to delay the date when it will consider landmark legislation to create a powerful new regulator of financial products. Conservative Democrats now realize these “reforms” could limit the capital made available to small business owners and reduce the number of financial products provided by our local banks.
The President addressed Congress and the nation in an effort to sell his health care reform plan. He laid out only a few details of his 10-year, $900 billion plan to re-shape America’s health care system. He made the “public” option one of the main centerpieces of his speech but gave very little information on how individuals and businesses, especially small businesses, would be impacted. Maybe that is because we all know the answer – higher taxes and more mandates.
In his speech the President welcomed ideas from all sides of the debate. Well here are a few:
- Support health care portability so that people can carry their insurance from job to job or have access to insurance when they are between jobs. Allow small businesses to purchase individually owned health insurance with pretax dollars;
- Oppose the bill developed by the House of Representatives that would increase taxes on our small businesses to pay for health care and impose a stiff penalty on those who don’t offer health care to their employees;
- Oppose the Senate’s attempts to place new restrictions on Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).
- Support allowing businesses to cross state lines to purchase health care for their employees which will increase access and make health care more affordable.
It is going to take more than just a good speech to produce health care reform legislation that preserves consumer choice and access to quality, affordable health care. Congress and the President need to re-think their approach and produce free market alternatives.
Congress returns to Washington, DC this week to pick up where they left off on health care reform. It will likely be a very different debate than what we heard in July.
All across the country, thousands of people turned out in August at town hall meetings and other events to express their opposition to the health care reform bills moving through Congress. Those who turned out to express their opposition were people from across the political spectrum. Small business owners concerned about mandates, seniors concerned about the level of care they would receive under a government run program and people from the disabilities community concerned about limiting their access.
It is clear that those pushing for a government run health care system, or public option, are out of step with what people want out of health care reform. Moderate Democrats, many who expressed support for a public option earlier this year, are now taking a second look at the House health care bill that will raise taxes and impose a surtax on our small businesses. Even the President has started to realize he has a very difficult sales job ahead of him and will speak before a joint session of Congress on Wednesday night.
What is happening shouldn't surprise any of us. We all agree that more needs to be done to reign in health care costs and improve the system. But a government run system that is paid for by taxing individuals and small businesses is not the answer.
Congress needs to seriously re-think its approach on health care. They need to be more open to ideas that make sense like allowing businesses to cross state lines to purchase health insurance for their employees, consider making health care portable so people can carry it from job to job and look for ways to reduce costs rather than impose new taxes.
A recent Labor Department report found that the smallest of businesses accounted for a disproportionate share of job losses. Companies that employed fewer than five workers – where 5.1% of the private sector workforce is employed – accounted for 14.5% of the job losses in the last quarter of 2008. Since this report runs through the end of 2008, it shows the early impact of the recession on small business owners.
It is clear that most small businesses are struggling to keep their doors open during the current economic downturn. And what are our policy makers in Washington, DC doing? Looking at adding new mandates and costly new taxes on our small businesses – at a time when they can least afford it.
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