Bcon

Tax cuts have lifted many small businesses

By ELAINE PARKER
This is an important week for all Americans who rely on small businesses — National Small Business Week. In addition to supporting small businesses in your local community, it pres- ents a great opportunity to learn about the essential role small business entrepreneurs and their employees play in the American economy.
According to the Small Business Administration, there are more than 30 mil- lion small businesses in the United States — which em- ploy nearly 60 million people. Small businesses account for 99 percent of all enterprises in the country.
® PRESS ENTERPRISE
Proud to be a family owned and operated newspaper since 1902
For the past decade,
small businesses have been responsible for creating two- thirds of all net new jobs, empowering local economies across the country. Not a lot of large businesses would open a location in a town of
a few thousand people, yet you can’t go anywhere in America without running across a small business. They are truly the hallmark and cornerstone of Main Street.
Last year, small business owners received a much- needed boost in the form of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, ushering in a red-hot econo- my. With more money in their coffers, small businesses have been able to invest in growth and their employees. The
macro-economic indicators clearly show the progress.
Using the most recent data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics last Friday, the unemployment rate has hit 3.6% — the lowest level in five decades — 5.8 million jobs have been created since the 2016 e******n, and wages have been rising at a rate of 3% or higher for the last nine months. Moreover manufacturing jobs are finally on the upswing and blue collar workers are expe- riencing greater wage gains than their supervisors.
It’s clear the rising eco- nomic tide is lifting all boats. As an example, take a look
at small business entrepre- neur Guy Berkebile — owner of Guy Chemical located in ru-
ral Pennsylvania and member of the Job Creators Network. Because of the tax cuts and the resulting robust economy, his business has been able to create 29 new jobs, raise wag- es, expand bonuses and begin offering a 401(k) program to all employees.
Success stories like these are taking place at small busi- nesses from coast to coast.
It’s a true testament to the prosperity that can arise when driven entrepreneurs are sup- ported by a strong economy and sound free market policies.
However, threats to these small business entrepreneurs and the prosperity they spur lurk behind every corner.
Policy proposals — such as the $15 minimum wage
— will increase operational costs and prompt layoffs and business closures. Not only will this specifically harm small businesses — which op- erate under tight budget con- straints — but the millions of entry-level workers who are in search of an opportunity to gain job experience will also feel the squeeze.
Additionally, the rising tide of socialism — coming
in the form of proposals like Medicare for All or the Green New Deal — threatens to dis- mantle the free market system that has been the source of economic advancement and entrepreneurial drive since the country’s founding. Our economy needs less govern- ment to continue the upward
climb, not more. If we’ve learned anything over the past two years, it’s that when businesses are unshackled from high taxes and red tape, amazing things can happen.
While small businesses play a vital role all year round, National Small Busi- ness Week is a great opportu- nity for Americans to reflect on how much we cherish the small businesses in our com- munities. In that spirit, we must work to ensure they are able to continue supporting Main Streets across the coun- try and breathing life into the American Dream.
Elaine Parker is the President of the Job Creators Network Foundation.

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

Trump Admin policies have helped create jobs. AOC lost 25,000 jobs

BBianch

By Joshua Holland

Let’s pause for a moment to appreciate how difficult it is to craft a massive tax cut that the American public doesn’t like. Republicans recently managed to do just that, passing a tax “reform” scheme that finances over $1 trillion in cuts skewed overwhelmingly toward corporations and the wealthy through deficit spending and is projected to cause 3 million Americans to lose their health coverage as a result.

The tax bill did gain in popularity after it was passed in December, mostly because Republican partisans were happy that their party, which controls all of Washington, finally managed to pass a significant piece of legislation. But as New York magazine’s Eric Levitz pointed out, several polls have found that it then became less popular once it went into effect in January. Three recent polls have found that the cuts remain under water in terms of public opinion by a margin of 8-9 percent.

That shouldn’t come as much of a surprise; the average $4,000-per-household raise in after-tax income with which Republicans sold the tax bill never materialized. An analysis by the Tax Policy Center found that an average household earning between $49,000 and $86,000 will see a cut of around $930 per year, almost half of which will be wiped out by rising gas prices (not all of which can be attributed to Trump or his party, but, as USA Today notes, “fears of political instability in the Middle East, including the prospect of U.S. military strikes in Syria, and trade tensions with China” are a big part of the story). Fewer than one in three respondents to a recent survey by CNBC said they’d noticed any bump at all in their pay.

But it’s the brazenness with which the Republican Party abandoned any last remaining pretense of caring about deficits or federal spending that may come back to haunt them, and mark a shift in the political landscape around taxes and spending. It goes further than the $1.9 trillion in additional deficits, including higher payments on the national debt, that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects will result from the tax bill over the next 10 years. When the nonpartisan number crunchers evaluated the fiscal impact of all of the legislation passed since mid-2017, including new spending, their analysis found that the GOP will add $2.6 trillion to the deficit over that period. What’s more, as Catherine Rampell noted in The Washington Post, that assumes that the economy will continue growing apace, and that the “temporary” individual tax cuts will expire according to the written law. But recent history suggests otherwise—most of George W. Bush’s budget-busting cuts were made permanent under Obama. In CBO’s worst-case scenario, “deficits would be larger by an average of a full percentage point of GDP, rising by a total of $2.6 trillion to yield a cumulative deficit of nearly $15 trillion” over the next 10 years.

Then, having created massive deficits for as far as the eye can see, House Republicans had the chutzpah to try to pass a constitutional amendment that would bar future Congresses from running any deficits at all. It’s a remarkably stupid policy. Running deficits isn’t inherently a bad thing if the purpose is to stimulate the economy during a recession or address a national emergency. The problem with these deficits is that they come at a time when the economy is growing and mostly just enrich the wealthy and pump up corporate profits.

The degree of hypocrisy on display here is such that even the most obtuse pundit can no longer pretend that the right’s rhetoric about “fiscal conservatism” is anything but a cudgel to use against Democratic priorities. Back under Obama, Paul Ryan warned that the only way to “avoid a Greek [debt] tragedy here at home” was to “chart [a] new course & cut spending now.” Then, he bashed the Affordable Care Act for adding to the deficit and endorsed the claim that failing to “address exploding path of fiscal deficits would be morally irresponsible.” This week, he dismissed the CBO’s analysis and insisted that the trillion-dollar deficits resulting from Republican policy were actually inevitable solely as a result of “entitlement spending.” Conservatives are already calling for cuts to safety-net programs to address the deficits their party created over the past year.

We’ve seen this all play out before. The Bush tax cuts, like Trump’s tax s**m, were sold on the premise that they would stimulate the economy to such a degree that they’d actually pay for themselves. But as this classic chart put together by the Center or Budget and Policy Priorities illustrated, that claim defied basic math.

But Trump’s tax bill, a maximalist expression of Republican priorities, might just mark a shift in the political landscape around taxes and spending. A remarkable exchange between Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Ella Nilsen from Vox suggests as much. Nilsen was talking to Schatz about his debt-free-college proposal, and asked the senator how much it would cost. “I don’t play the pay-for game. I reject the pay-for game,” he said. “After the Republicans did the $1.5 trillion in unpaid-for tax cuts, and as we’re doing a bipartisan appropriations bill which is also an increase in federal spending.… I just reject the idea that only progressive ideas have to be paid for. We can work on that as we go through the process, but I think it’s a trap.”

It is a trap, and it has always been a trap, and this is the right answer. Obviously, the cost of legislation will be part of the discussion at some point in the process—when CBO scores an actual bill—but Republicans articulate their priorities and just dismiss the budget projections that they don’t like. Democrats can take a lesson from that, and if Schatz’s response is any indication, perhaps they do.

The one bright spot in these otherwise perilous times is that Trump has exposed the dark reality of much of the right’s views on race, criminal justice, immigration, and the rule of law. With their tax s**m, congressional Republicans have made sure that we also have just as much clarity about what “fiscal conservatism” really means. Time will tell how that plays out in the policy debates to come.

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

Simpler solution. Flat tax! there is no perfect solution

PeterS

Very few small business owners would have been affected by the tax cut--a cut that was targeted at corporations--a shelter very few small businesses can use.

Bcon

Please don’t post your opinion as facts unless you have proofs to back them up.

Lonewolf

The first tax break cost us 2 trillion and the next 3 trillion that's like borrowing money to give yourself a raise .

grace scott

A wee bit touchy about our president's tax breaks are you?

PeterS

Well, it's a fact that the majority of small businesses are sole proprietorships, partnerships, or sub S corporations--none of which can take advantage of the tax cut provided for C-corporations.

Trump relies on ignorance to sell the success of his policies. Here the image is that Trump's tax policies are a benefit to the millions of mom and pops that make up small businesses in this country when in fact there is virtually no mom and pops that would benefit from incorporating as a C-corporation. Most of these would be sole proprietorships followed by partnerships and those that do incorporate would probably incorporate as an S-corporation and the tax laws for C-corporations wouldn't apply there.

Trump's tax policies are designed for the wealthy elite not for the average Joe who makes up the bulk of small businesses in this country...

https://www.sba.gov/sites/default/files/advocacy/2018-Small-Business-Profiles-US.pdf

PeterS

We ran a 665 billion dollar deficit in 2017, a 779 billion dollar deficit in 2018, and the deficit for 2019 is 38% ahead of 2018. Oh, and this was in a strong economy according to Trump--an in what Trump called the strongest economy EVER!!! Conservatives are among the most gullible people out there. Cons threw a screaming fit over the debt incurred under Obama and they are going to surpass Obama's numbers in a good economy. Trump has so fuked up the dynamics of our economy that he has to employ borrow and spend simply in an effort to breakeven...

Bcon

Yeah Peter, maybe we ought to go back to the economics of your idol, Obama, with its massive welfare, excessive food stamps, one percent growth rate, excessive unemployment and the rest of his policies, like doubling the national debt, more than any other three presidents. Would that make your liberal heart feel better. I doubt it as you are a constant complainer. That no matter how this country is improving, you are unsatisfied because it is improving under a non democratic president.

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

While t***h rings true here you will not have one dem, liberal, socialist wh**ever they go by now find agreement..

They will twist and spin and you’ll even see them say BO did that not President Trump..

C’est la vie, bonne journée....🌹

Bcon

Sadly, you are right. If and when those on the left open their eyes to the improvements that have been made in the past few years, we can move forward at a much greater pace. In the meantime, with their politics of obstructionism prevailing, every improvement made will be a struggle and made, as usual, only by the conservative movement.

dtucker300 Loc: Vista, CA

Tax cuts are good for everyone. It's not the government's money! They didn't create it, they didn't risk it, and they didn't earn it. Corporations are not owned only by the wealthy. Most have stockholders, average everyday people like you and I who have investments, pension plan, preferred stock dividends, etc. that depend on these entities to do well. That is their obligation to stockholders as well as conducting business ethically for the benefit of everyone. The problem is not with too much wealth concentrated in too few hands. It is crony capitalism, government subsidies, redistribution schemes, and cumbersome tax code. Finally, it is the burdensome debt and deficits, and phony fiat money from the Federal Reserve because we went off the gold-standard. We have veered so far off-track that it seems nearly impossible for us to get back on the right road. We never will as long as our elected officials keep tinkering with every aspect of our economy.

lindajoy Loc: right here with you....

I wish I was absolutely wrong here!! I’d much rather have a government that works together in the united front to get agreements none will like, bit will move our country forward...