It's All About Small Business...and Stability

Folks in Washington and Sacramento just don't get it. They try and try to appear friendly to small businesses, but their feeble attempts to create a more "business friendly" environment all fall short.

The classic example of this "failure" is Barack Obama's attempt to "stimulate" small businesses -- a second time. The first stimulus failed miserably to entice small business owners to hire new employees...but it did grow government. So, now, Obama and his Democrat minions want to enact a series of targeted tax credits and small business loans. I guess for someone from the non-profit/community organizing world, if all you know is government involvement, hand-out politics, then this approach makes sense. Unfortunately, the Small Business Administration is woefully poor at picking winners and losers (probably because politics and social engineering get in the way), and tax credits don't encourage long-term hiring.

What Washington -- and Sacramento -- need to understand is that small businesses make long-term decisions on hiring based on stability and predictability. By allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire -- you know, the ones that supposedly bailed out the rich -- small business owners (many of whom file their tax returns as individuals...and thus exceed the $250,000 limit) will be hit with a tax increase. This environment is not conducive to more hiring. Perhaps this is why the US is stuck at a 9.7% unemployment rate -- a rate that will grow...and California faces a 12.4% umemployment rate.

Obama, Washington Dems and Sacramento politicians need to get out of the way. LOWER taxes, decrease regulation...and magically, small businesses will begin hiring again. We've seen the alternative. Heavy government involvement will only grow government, which in turn leads to the need for higher taxes on individuals and the private sector, which in turn decreases the job-creation environment. We're caught in a dangerous downward spiral. But, for Obama, that may be what he intends!!!