Congressional Republican small business schedule today:
10:00: Unveil agenda mentioning small business 18 times.
2:30: Return to Capitol to vote against help for small business.
Congressional Republicans visited Tart Lumber Company, a small business in Sterling, Virginia where they laid out their “Pledge to America,” which will do nothing more than take America back to the same failed economic policies that caused this recession and hurt the very small business where they are holding their event.
The “Pledge to America” mentions small businesses not once, but eighteen times. But what it fails to mention is the impact the Republican agenda actually would have on small businesses.
In addition to hiking taxes for 110 million middle-class families and millions of businesses, the Congressional Republican have consistently opposed the 8 small business tax cuts that the President has already signed into law including:
- A New Small Business Health Care Tax Credit
- A New Tax Credit for Hiring Unemployed Workers
- Bonus Depreciation Tax Incentives to Support New Investment
- 75% Exclusion of Small Business Capital Gains
- Expansion of Limits on Small Business Expensing
- Five-Year Carryback of Net Operating Losses
- Reduction of the Built-In Gains Holding Period for Small Businesses from 10 to 7 Years to Allow Small Business Greater Flexibility in Their Investments
- Temporary Small Business Estimated Tax Payment Relief to Allow Small Businesses to Keep Needed Cash on Hand
And it doesn’t end there, the same Republicans in Congress are expected to vote against another Small Business Jobs Bill in the House TODAY….that’s right…they are expected to vote against a bill that would potentially benefit the very small business where they are rolling out their agenda.
The potential benefits to Tart Lumber in the Small Business Jobs Bill include:
- Businesses like Tart will be able to immediately write off its first $500,000 in equipment investment next year.
- Investors in firms like Tart would receive zero capital gains on their investments.
- A new Small Business Lending Fund will make capital more available to firms like Tart
- By expanding successful SBA lending programs, firms like Tart will have expanded opportunities to get the loans they need to grow.
As a recap, Republicans in Congress were not always against assistance for small businesses. In fact, the same Small Business Jobs Bill they are expected to vote against today is made up of Republican ideas including zero capital gains on investments and business expensing write offs. Unfortunately Republicans in Congress are once again putting partisan obstruction ahead of essential assistance for small businesses, even those they use as backdrops.