Small Business Leaders To Congress: "Focus on the Middle Class"
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WASHINGTON - It's a critical time of year for many small businesses, which are big drivers of the nation's economy. They say plenty is at stake for those businesses and the economy as Congress attempts to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff.
David Levine, CEO of the American Sustainable Business Council, which represents more than 150,000 businesses nationwide, says allowing tax breaks for the wealthy to expire won't hurt business. He says the top income tiers have had a decade's worth of tax breaks that did little to grow the economy. Now, Congress needs to focus on the middle class to help smaller businesses, which he says grow 70 percent of the nation's jobs.
"Particularly, our small and midsize Main Street businesses have been carrying an unfair burden, so it's really time to create a fair system, so that we can get America back to work and revive our economy."
Congress continues its lame-duck session this week. Levine says it's vital that lawmakers stop the "fiscal cliff" automatic tax increases for middle-income Americans, which he says could have a drastically negative impact on small and mid-size businesses.
Last week at the White House, President Obama got the views of 15 small-business leaders, including Mandy Cabot, founder and CEO of employee-owned Dansko Shoes. Cabot says she talked with the President about the promise of shared prosperity for all. She believes it's vital for her company and its customers that the nation has adequate revenue to invest in infrastructure and job growth.
"Job training is important, education is important, infrastructure in terms of roads and transportation. We grow as consumers have increased confidence in their wallets and ability to spend on important things."
David Levine says the record on economic growth is clear. He says just over a million jobs were created following the Bush tax cuts, compared with more than 20 million new jobs when tax rates were at Clinton-era levels.
"The number of jobs created during Clinton's two terms was more than 20 times higher than during Bush's two terms. This is not a matter of Republican versus Democrat; it's just that those tax decreases on the wealthiest are not what is creating jobs."
Levine notes that ending the top-tier tax breaks will bring in more than $850 million in badly-needed revenue over the next ten years. He says nearly 700 small-business leaders have now signed on in support of ending tax cuts for the wealthiest two percent of the population.
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