Perhaps an indication of why the very rich and very poor tend to lean left and the middle right might be reflected in a report by Chris Myers for the “Small Business Survival Committee”, a townhall member organization. (Thanks to Captain’s Quarters.) Myers argues that Kerry only voted “for” small businesses 13 times out of 101 votes. Not surprisingly, the 101 votes were concerned with affordable health coverage in ways supported by the small business community, tort reform, access to global markets, regulation, government spending on “corporate welfare”, and tax relief.
I don’t know about policy or this group, but the conclusions seem representative of the traditional liberal/conservative (or big government/entrepreneur) split. Myers summarizes:
[S]mall businesses make up more than 99.7 percent of all employers and create 75 percent of the net new jobs in our economy. Small businesses with employees start-up at a rate of over 500,000 per year and create more than 50 percent of the nonfarm private gross domestic product (GDP).
In other words, Kerry’s policies on small businesses are no more likely to lower the unemployment rate than are his proposed restrictions on “Benedict Arnold corporations.”
Not to mention Kerry’s methods for job creation, through the gov, amount to little more than welfare. There must be substantial demand for the services and they must be effectively delivered. What needs to happen is the cost of hiring and firing needs to go down. Many companies see additional employees as a major liability if their market changes or doesn’t meet expectations.
Healthcare needs to be stream-lined. Not all services and products should be covered for everyone. Priority needs to be placed on emergencies and debilitating disease and injury. Less essential products/services should be paid out of pocket, like many drugs, non-emergency mental care, etc. Discounts on primary coverage can be given for people who choose to pay for preventative care (rather than having the issurer pay, hiding the costs and fudging the prices).
Also somethings that some one needs to investigate are: the possiblity that in addition to a tech bubble, did we also have a wage bubble? Were starting salaries for new grads excedingly high? Did Y2K create a glut in the tech job market? Why aren’t companies hiring simply to pass on experience befor many begin to retire? Why isn’t some of the social benefit of creating new jobs and the relief of burden of having unemployed persons passed on to employers?
I read a site named, “Small Business Trends.” It’s on blogspot.
The 9/4 post from a report by the SBA was interesting.
What people fail to realize is when W lowered the rate to 35%, all he did was equal sub-S corps w/big corps’ tax rate.
We are the backbone of the country. These are “the rich.” And we were paying 39ish % of our income, while the biggies only paid 35%. AND we couldn’t deduct HC like the biggies until a few years ago, either.
Under the old tax plan, those sub-S’s making between $300K to $18 MILLION were taxed at 39.6%, those making over over $18 m were taxed at 35%.
I’d be happy to see $300K, my husband’s an SBO.
The 9/4 posting has some interesting info.
And the Kerrys – who are not “small business” owners but rather of the class from which (theoretically) he would derive the taxes to feed his government – paid 11.5% last year. This appears to be a good deal less than the average 15% for, say, a family in which the parents are a school teacher and fireman.