Without the small business sector of the economy, America would
be flat on its back — economically, politically, and militarily.
And presidential hopeful John Kerry has consistently taken
positions over the past decade that are a direct threat to the
strength and survival of entrepreneurial activity and small
businesses in this country.
That’s the ominous conclusion of a new report from the
D.C.-based Small Business Survival Committee, “Bigger Government on
the Way? Senator John F. Kerry’s 10-Year Voting Record on Key Small
Business Issues.”
Damage America’s small business community and here’s exactly
what is at stake, based on the officials numbers. In its latest
survey, the Small Business Administration reports that small
businesses make up more than 99.7 percent of all employers in the
United States and create 75 percent of the net new jobs in the
American economy. In short, we’re not talking about the financial
interests of just some small business owners — we’re talking about
the backbone of the American economy and the bulk of the nation’s
jobs and paychecks.
With a start-up rate of over 500,000 new companies per year,
it’s the entrepreneurial and small business sector that’s more than
making up for the jobs that are being lost through outsourcing and
downsizing in the more monopolized and multinational sectors of the
American economy. As a case in point, women-owned small businesses
now employ more people in the United States than all the Fortune
500 companies combined.
Reviewing a decade-long history of Senate votes from the 103rd
Congress in 1993 through the 108th Congress in 2003 on legislation
important to small business, the Small Business Survival Committee
(SBSC) finds Senator Kerry’s record to be “unsettling.”
Overall, on an array of matters that impinge directly on the
bottom line of the nation’s key source of new employment, SBSC
reports that Kerry voted on the side of small business “a mere 13
times out of the 101 votes that SBSC rated during the past decade,
giving him a weak 13 percent rating on key small business
issues.”
Year after year, on issue after issue, Kerry’s votes on small
business issues reveal an approach that time and again threatens to
undermine the strength and vitality of the precise sector of the
American economy that’s now shouldering the greater part of job
creation and innovation.
“Senator Kerry voted against small business 94 percent of the
time on tax-related legislation rated by SBSC,” says research
associate Chris W. Myers. “Given 34 opportunities to support
business on tax issues, Kerry chose to do so on only two
occasions.”
On regulatory reform, SBSC reports that Kerry voted against
small business 25 out of 30 times. Currently, companies with fewer
than 20 employees spend an average of almost $7,000 per worker per
year in order to comply with federal regulations, nearly twice the
amount of large firms. “It’s important that this burden of
regulations be reformed and minimized for small businesses,” Myers
argues. “However, based on his legislative record, that doesn’t
appear to be a goal of Senator Kerry.”
On votes over the past 10 years in the area of legal reform, the
SBSC analysis shows Kerry voting in opposition to small business 90
percent of the time. “Frivolous lawsuits hurt investment, job
creation and the overall economy,” explains Myers. “Unfortunately,
Senator Kerry stands in the way of meaningful and common sense
reform.”
On health coverage issues, “Senator Kerry voted against the
interests of small business 100 percent of the time,” reports SBSC.
“These ranged from votes against the passage of health savings
accounts to votes against allowing self-employed small business
owners to deduct their health insurance expenses to help make
health coverage more affordable.”
Taken as a whole, John Kerry’s legislative record with respect
to small business and the issues that matter most to this sector
shows a preference for higher taxes, less affordable health
coverage, more burdensome regulations, more frivolous lawsuits, and
more government spending — an agenda that’s the perfect
prescription for fewer business start-ups, more bankruptcies, less
entrepreneurship, less economic growth, more unemployment, slower
income growth, smaller take-home pays, more poverty, more
regulators, more lawyers and bigger government.
Stated in macro terms, Senator Kerry is calling for a $2
trillion expansion in government spending for new federal programs
over the next decade, over and above what’s already projected,
while at the same time he supports an agenda that places roadblocks
in the path of small business growth and in the expansion of jobs
and tax revenues that will flow from that growth. Bottom line, it
doesn’t add up.
