RSS Feed 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.
In an attempt to stem the spending spree that has taken place this year, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has put forward a set of recommendations to balance the federal budget.
Unfortunately some of the people that will take the biggest hit are working families and small business owners.
Just a few of the CBO's recommendations:
- Increase the individual income tax rates.
- Eliminate tax subsidies for child care.
- Eliminate or limit eligibility for the child tax credit.
- Require self-employed and employees to pay the same amounts in payroll taxes.
Last week as the Cash for Clunkers car program announced all the money was gone after only a week; it reminded me of a quote Thomas Jefferson left for us. " A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have." As the deficit soars and the spending escalates, what happens when we run out of money to fund a government run health care system? We better think about these things. After all, we the people fund the government. Government doesn't make money.
We can breathe a sigh of relief that Congress will break for August without voting on health care reform. Let's hope the American people will voice their opinions to these federal elected officials that we need to let the free market work. We need alternatives to "Obamacare" that will not kill small business jobs and not destroy the private insurance market.
Minimum Wage Increase and Health Care Reform – A Perfect Storm for Small Business
The cost of doing business in the United States just got more expensive.
On Friday the federal minimum wage was increased for the third time in three years, jumping from $6.55 an hour to $7.25 an hour, a staggering 10.7 percent jump. This comes at a time when unemployment is rising and people are finding it difficult to find a job and employers are struggling to keep their doors open.
According to a 2003 study by economists at the Federal Reserve, a 2-3 percent decrease in employment can be expected from a 10 percent increase in the minimum wage. In fact, small business owners will be paying 40.8 percent more per hour than they were paying in January 2007. Unemployment was 4.6 percent then, today it is 9.5 percent.
Good for the Goose?—Will Congress have the same health care plan as Small Business Owners?
Last week, Senator Tom Coburn (R-Ok), also known as Dr. Coburn, pressed the Senate Health Committee to approve his idea of requiring members of congress to enroll in whatever "public plan" is passed to compete with private insurance companies. On the House side, they have unveiled its 1,018 page health care proposal that costs nearly $1 billion per page and still doesn't solve the problem of providing coverage to all Americans. What say you about this? Please comment http://terry-neese-blog.com/
In fact, according to the Congressional Budget Office, under the House bill the number of Americans without health insurance increases over the next three years.
The House proposal would extend insurance to 37 million (still leaving 17 million uninsured) Americans over the next decade, covering more by expanding Medicaid and providing subsidies to help the uninsured meet the new federal mandate to purchase insurance.
Who is going to pay for increased coverage? Small business for one– big time! Sign this petition to stop government takeover of health care: http://www.freeourhealthcarenow.com/
The House of Representatives unveiled its 1,018 page health care proposal that costs nearly $1 billion per page and doesn't solve the problem. There is enough in the massive $1.2 trillion bill to make everyone sick.
The proposal would extend insurance to 37 million (still leaving 17 million uninsured) Americans over the next decade, covering more by expanding Medicaid and providing subsidies to help the uninsured meet the new federal mandate to purchase insurance.
Who is going to pay for increased coverage? Small business for one.
If you are feeling like your small business is over regulated, it probably is. A new national survey conducted by Moore Information found that by nearly a two-to-one margin, American voters believe business and industry are over-regulated in this country. Today, 45% of voters believe there is "too much" government regulation of business.
That shouldn't surprise any of us who own or a run a small business. The reach of the federal government has continued to grow over the last decade, and it doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon.
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