Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Since I wasn't invited...

President Obama's visit to the Tastee Sub Shop in Edison tomorrow will include a round table with small business owners, according the the Star Ledger.

The President is expected to promote a bill expanding loan programs and tax breaks for small businesses.

As a small business owner, and a former president of a regional chamber of commerce who wasn't invited to the table, I have some input for the President:

1)I don't know what tax breaks the Democrats are proposing. What we need is a reduction in the payroll tax. Anything you can do to reduce the cost of hiring employees will help us put more people to work and grow our business.

2)Keep your loan programs and disband the Small Business Administration (SBA). Government loan programs don't help small business in the long run, they subsidize banks and encourage them to take risks they shouldn't take. That's how we got into this mess in that we are in now. Yes we know all to well that banks are not lending to small businesses. That's because they are holding out for your subsidy. When they know for sure that it isn't coming, they will start lending. Banks have responded to all of the new regulations the government has rolled out in the last couple of years in such a way that credit is now more expensive and harder to get that it would have been otherwise. Keep the government out of the banking business.

3) I realize we are not going to agree about health care. We'll elect a new congress to get rid of the travesty that your health care bill is. However, you might agree to eliminate the provision that requires us to issue 1099s to all vendors that we pay more than $600 per year to. That is going to be an expensive and unproductive paper work nightmare that will not yield as much tax revenue as you think it will. Please get rid of that right away.

Enjoy your stay in the Garden State Mr. President. I recommend the #8, Bologna and Cheese sandwich at Tastee Sub Shop. Please don't make an issue of the fact that Tastee offers a 5% discount for cash transaction. I'm sure they are doing that to pass on the savings of the banks' credit card fees, not to avoid taxes.

No comments: