What Dems Built: Misery for Small Businesses

August 28, 2012

Burdensome Regulations Like ObamaCare and Tax Hikes Are Hurting Small Businesses, But Democrats Won’t Budge on Their Job-Destroying Agenda

Small businesses continue to struggle in the Obama economy, and the situation is only being made harder by taxes and regulations being pushed by Democrats that are making it impossible for small firms to make ends meet, let alone hire new workers.
ObamaCare in particular is a big contributor to small businesses’ struggles, ballooning healthcare costs and burdening small businesses with new regulations that will destroy jobs and force them to drop healthcare coverage for their workers.
Despite the tough economy, Democrats continue to demand job-destroying new tax hikes to feed their spending addiction.

Small businesses continue to struggle in the Obama economy, and the situation is only being made harder by taxes and regulations being pushed by Democrats that are making it impossible for small firms to make ends meet, let alone hire new workers:

SURVEY: “ECONOMY, FISCAL POLICY TROUBLE SMALL BUSINESSES”: (John D. McKinnon, “Survey: Economy, Fiscal Policy Trouble Small Businesses,” The Wall Street Journal, 8/22/2012)

SMALL BUSINESSES PARTICULARLY CONCERNED BY RISING HEALTHCARE COSTS, HIGH TAXES: “Health-care costs and taxes remain big bugaboos too, according to the once-every-four-years survey by the National Federation of Independent Business. … Two important sources of uncertainty are the major overhauls of health-care and financial-services regulation that Congress passed in 2010. NFIB unsuccessfully challenged President Barack Obama’s health-care revamp in court; the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately upheld the law.” (John D. McKinnon, “Survey: Economy, Fiscal Policy Trouble Small Businesses,” The Wall Street Journal, 8/22/2012)

SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS SUPPORT ROMNEY OVER OBAMA, 61% TO 26%: “Sixty-one percent of small business owners plan to vote for the Republican challenger, more than double the 26 percent who say they will vote for President Obama, shows a survey released Tuesday by Manta. The president’s numbers have fallen six points since May, while Mitt Romney has picked up four points with business owners. In the latest national polls, the candidates are virtually deadlocked.” (J.D. Harrison, “Poll: Romney Widens Lead Among Small Business Voters,” The Washington Post, 8/21/2012)

NFIB: “SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS MORE PESSIMISTIC IN JULY”: (“Small Business Owners More Pessimistic in July,” Associated Press, 8/14/2012)

GALLUP: “U.S. SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS’ OPTIMISM DECLINES IN JULY”:(Dennis Jacobe, “U.S. Small Business Owners’ Optimism Declines in July,” Gallup, 8/7/2012)

ObamaCare in particular is a big contributor to small businesses’ struggles, ballooning healthcare costs and burdening small businesses with new regulations that will destroy jobs and force them to drop healthcare coverage for their workers:

SMALL BUSINESSES WARN THAT OBAMACARE IS FORCING THEM TO DROP COVERAGE, HURTING THEIR HIRING:

UBS RESEARCH: OBAMACARE IS “ARGUABLY THE BIGGEST IMPEDIMENT TO HIRING”: “Arguably the biggest impediment to hiring (particularly hiring of less skilled workers) is healthcare reform… By raising the cost of labor, healthcare reform systematically discourages hiring, especially of low-wage workers whose mandated benefits are high relative to their wages.” (“Great Suppression II,” UBS Research, Pgs.1, 5, 9/19/2011)

73% OF SMALL BUSINESS JOB CREATORS CITE OBAMACARE AS AN “OBSTACLE TO HIRING NEW WORKERS”: (Peter Schroeder, “Survey: Uncertainty, Gas Prices Slowing Hiring by Small Business,” The Hill, 4/16/2012)

“NEARLY TWO-THIRDS OF EMPLOYERS EXPECT TO SEE A COST HIKE IN THEIR HEALTH PLANS”: “Nearly two-thirds of employers expect to see a cost hike in their health plans when the Affordable Care Act goes into effect in 2014, and a quarter say they will have to make changes to their coverage to avoid penalties, according to the survey by the Mercer consulting firm.” (Kathryn Smith, “Businesses Brace for Health Care Cost Increase, Report Says,” Politico, 8/8/2012)

57% OF SMALL BUSINESSES ARE “VERY” OR “SOMEWHAT” LIKELY TO DROP HEALTH COVERAGE FOR WORKERS: “Should employees begin to leave for an exchange, 26 percent of currently offering small employers are very likely to explore dropping their health insurance plans and another 31 percent are somewhat likely to do so.” (“Small Business and Health Insurance: One Year After Enactment of PPACA,” NFIB, 5/24/2012)

1 IN 8 SMALL BUSINESSES HAVE ALREADY SEEN THEIR HEALTH COVERAGE TERMINATED DUE TO OBAMACARE: “One in eight small businesses told the National Federation of Independent Business that since the health law passed in 2010, their health insurer had either terminated their plan or notified them it is going to be eliminated. … Dennis said the NFIB was ‘not aware of any data that suggested’ insurers had dropped coverage of small businesses in such large numbers in years before the passage of the health law. For this reason, they felt confident the health law was the cause, he said.” (Bara Vaida, “Some Small Businesses Say Health Insurers Are Dropping Their Coverage,” Kaiser Health News, 7/25/2011)

JOB-DESTROYING OBAMACARE TAX HIKES ARE ON THE WAY:

CBO: $1 TRILLION IN OBAMACARE TAX HIKES OVER 2013-2022: (Douglas Elmendorf, “Letter to the Honorable John Boehner,” Congressional Budget Office, 7/24/2012, p.6)

NFIB STUDY: 150K SMALL BUSINESS JOBS COULD BE DESTROYED BY OBAMACARE’S HEALTH INSURANCE TAX: (“NFIB Research Foundation Study: Health Insurance Tax to Cost 125,000 to 249,000 Private-Sector Jobs,” NFIB, 11/9/2011)

AT LEAST 14,500 JOBS OR AS MANY AS 47,000 JOBS COULD BE DESTROYED BY OBAMACARE’S HEART ATTACK TAX: (Michael Ramlet, Robert Book and Han Zhong, “The Economic Impact of the Medical Device Tax,” American Action Forum, 6/4/2012)

13,303 SMALL- TO MEDIUM-SIZE MEDICAL DEVICE FIRMS IN U.S., OR 91% OF ALL MEDICAL DEVICE COMPANIES COULD BE AFFECTED: (Michael Ramlet, Robert Book and Han Zhong, “The Economic Impact of the Medical Device Tax,” American Action Forum, 6/4/2012)

INTERNATIONAL FRANCHISE ASSOCIATION: “3.2 MILLION JOBS AT FRANCHISE BUSINESSES CONTINUE TO BE PUT AT RISK”:(“High Court Ruling Puts Jobs at Franchise Businesses at Risk,” International Franchise Association, 6/28/2012)

Despite the tough economy, Democrats continue to demand job-destroying new tax hikes to feed their spending addiction:

89% OF DEMOCRATS VOTED AGAINST PREVENTING TAX HIKES(Roll Call 545, Clerk of the U.S. House, 8/1/2012)

FORMER CBO DIRECTOR: DEMOCRAT PLAN TO HIKE TAXES IS “MADNESS”: (Ronald D. Orol, “Democrat Idea to Let Bush Tax Cuts Expire Is ‘Madness’,” MarketWatch, 8/2/2012)

FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN BEN BERNANKE: IF DEMS GET THEIR WAY “RECESSION WOULD OCCUR EARLY NEXT YEAR”: “The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that, if the full range of tax increases and spending cuts were allowed to take effect–a scenario widely referred to as the fiscal cliff–a shallow recession would occur early next year…”(Bernanke testimony before the Senate Banking Committee, Federal Reserve Web site, 7/17/2012)

JOINT COMMITTEE ON TAXATION: 940,000 SMALL BUSINESSES TO GET HIT BY DEMOCRATS’ LATEST TAX HIKE: “Congress’s Joint Tax Committee—not a conservative outfit—estimates that in 2013 about 940,000 taxpayers will have enough business income to meet Mr. Obama’s tax increase threshold.” (Editorial, “Off the Tax Cliff He Goes,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/10/2012)

710,000 JOBS COULD BE DESTROYED BY DEMOCRATS’ TAX HIKE PLAN: (Robert Carroll and Gerald Prante, “Long-Run Macroeconomic Impact of Increasing Tax Rates on High-Income Taxpayers in 2013,” Ernst & Young, July 2012, Appendix C)

1.8% DROP IN WAGES: “Real after-tax wages would fall by 1.8%, reflecting a decline in workers’ living standards relative to what would have occurred otherwise.” (Robert Carroll and Gerald Prante, “Long-Run Macroeconomic Impact of Increasing Tax Rates on High-Income Taxpayers in 2013,” Ernst & Young, July 2012)

MORE THAN HALF OF NET BUSINESS INCOME WILL BE HIT BY HIGHER TAX RATES UNDER OBAMA PROPOSAL: “And of the roughly $1.3 trillion in net business income, about 53% will get hit with the higher tax rates. This is because millions of businesses report their income as sole proprietors and subchapter S corporations that file under the individual tax code.” (Editorial, “Off the Tax Cliff He Goes,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/10/2012)

OBAMA’S NEW TAX HIKE WOULD HAVE SOME SMALL BUSINESSES PAYING HIGHER TAX RATES THAN GENERAL ELECTRIC AND J.P. MORGAN: “So Mr. Obama wants these businesses to pay higher tax rates than the giant likes of General Electric or J.P. Morgan. Does that qualify as ‘tax fairness’?” (Editorial, “Off the Tax Cliff He Goes,” The Wall Street Journal, 7/10/2012)

What Dems Built: Misery for Small Businesses http://ow.ly/dgGB8#madeindc