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Left Turns

Small Business in the Crosshairs

WASHINGTON, D.C., July 15, 2009 | Alexa Marrero ((202) 225-4527)
467,000 jobs lost last month. 6.5 million jobs lost since the recession began. If ever there were a time to stand up for small businesses, it would be now.

So what have congressional Democrats done for small businesses this week? Inexplicably, they’ve launched an assault on them in order to pay for their government takeover of our health care system.

“House Democrats on Tuesday unveiled sweeping health-care legislation that would hit all but the smallest businesses with a penalty equal to 8% of payroll if they fail to provide health insurance to workers.

“The House bill, which also would impose new taxes on the wealthy estimated to bring in more than $544 billion over a decade, came as lawmakers in the Senate raced against a self-imposed deadline of this week to introduce a bill in time for action this summer,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

What Democrats fail to mention is that this so-called tax on the wealthy is aimed squarely at small businesses – a double whammy when paired with the 8% tax on jobs. Approximately half the individual taxes collected through the new half-trillion dollar surtax would come from small businesses.

A national mandate on small businesses to provide health care would eliminate 1.6 million jobs over a five-year period, according to a study by the National Federation of Independent Business Research Foundation. Two out of three of those jobs would be shed from small businesses.

Or perhaps things would be even worse. Using a model developed by Dr. Christina Romer, chairwoman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, it is estimated that 4.7 million jobs could be lost as a result of health-related taxes businesses simply cannot afford to pay.

Perhaps someone should remind Democrats that Americans won’t have employer-provided health care – nor will they be able to afford to purchase health care on their own – if their jobs disappear. Maybe a tax on small businesses isn’t such a good idea after all.


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