Exactly how does Bush help small business?

[gulliver]

Bush helps big business. How is a small business going to take advantage of reduced enforcement of environmental laws and encouragement of outsourcing for example?

I don't know of any small businesses that produce a lot of pollution. So Bush giving polluters an easy ride doesn't help small business. Sure, Bush clears up a lot of government "red tape" like that, but that only helps big business.

Then what about outsourcing? Bush is for it, but it actually hurts small business. A small business can't afford the overhead and initiation costs of outsourcing. Therefore, Bush's support of sending American white collar jobs overseas simply makes it harder for small business to compete with big business.

Bush is for Walmart versus Main Street -- big business, not small.

[RobertSeattle]

1. Agreed

The amount of government regulation a business must follow is directly proportional to the possibility what you do could hurt someone (physically or finacially) or the environment. Which, if you think about it makes a great deal of sense.

Also, "Small Business" is a weasel term since it could mean almost anything. I think for some statistics, "small business" can mean companies as large as a 1000 people.

Bush use once again using "small business" as a smokescreen to get what he really wants - weakened rules on Big Business.

Whenever a Republican starts saying there are out to protect children, the poor, or small business, WATCH OUT!

[unblock]

2. by helping big business,

he makes it easier for them to buy out small businesses at a steep discount! then the small businessman gets to work for a more stable, big company!

[amazona]

3. the plan is to crush small business

Either you work for a large corporation or you die like a dog -- that is our place in the GOP elite's dream world.

The single biggest thing any gov't can do to make small business competitive with large business is to provide universal health care not tied to employment. My friend with millions of dollars and 60 employees and myself as a self-employed contractor with an income in the high four figures -- we are both experiencing the same problem -- a HUGE difficulty in getting health care coverage. He has experienced everything from (illegal) pressure to lay off an employee who has been in recovery from a non-fatal cancer to seeing his health insurance rates jump 98 percent from 2003 to 2004; so even the largest small business can't hire the top talent because they can't afford decent health plans. As for truly small business and self-employed, we have no safety net at all. When a self-employed man with a lawn service on my street got a brain tumor, the response was to throw some spaghetti dinners. I'm sorry, you can throw a thousand spaghetti dinners and these days it doesn't raise any money unless it's a baby. I think my neighbor has died; the house has since sold. It's a shame because I know other people whose brain tumors were treated and who lived 2 decades or more.

No one who doesn't put serious health care reform on the table really, in their heart of hearts, gives a damn about helping small business. The GOP are thieves and liars, always have been, always will be. Sorry if I sound cynical but I've been self-employed for 2 decades. All I can advise you is if you have ANY ability to work for a large business rather than a small one or being self-employed -- swallow your ideals and take the job with the large firm. It's a survival issue.

Far from being helped by outsourcing, the services provided by outsourcing are REPLACING small American businesses. Women in my area used to be able to train as medical transcriptionists and have businesses of their own earning up to $50,000 a year. No more -- now they have to compete with Indians really working for nothing -- so their businesses have been destroyed.

[meti57b]

4. I think bush helps small business by getting rid of required protections

and benefits. This is just a guess.

[gulliver]

5. Got any specifics?

I know you are just guessing, but it seems like you might actually have something in mind.

I really would like to know what protections and benefits Bush is getting rid of. I haven't read about him bragging about any of them. He just vaguely says that he helps by reducing government regulations.

If you know of a single example of a benefit or protection that Bush got rid of to help small business, I would like to know about it.

[PATRICK]

6. By favoring them with

a higher position on the Ponzi pyramid of hard working suckers, but with little substantial gain. Certain money and deregulation schemes and the squelching of the minimum wage make up for the general devastation they cannot see clearly enough to blame on him.

On the other hand, many people take with one hand whatever favors and can't wait to dump Bush anyway, because he is so frighteningly bad for business in real terms.

[KharmaTrain]

7. I Just Closed A Small Business...

Most of the assets were sold off, but this started as a small ma & pa business that got squeezed out by government "de-regulation" that took a once thriving small business and put it in a very unfair competitive situation, thus it's demise.

There's little incentive to start a small business today, thus my BIG interest in Mr. Kerry's proposals yesterday. I'd love to reinvest and help build up businesses, but the climate today says its better to sit on the sidelines and play the "poneys" (the financial markets)...while Rome burns, smart portfolio managers are bringing their "clients" real nice returns right now...and with reduced capital gains taxes...well you can see whose winning here.

I have a lot of faith there will soon be a huge wave of entrepenurial growth in this country. We have too many talented people to be held back. The 90's was a great time to start and own a small business...hopefully with a Kerry administration, those days can start to return.

We've got a lot of rebuilding and clean-up in this country in the wake of 50 years of corporate devestation. Get hip boots.

[RoadRunner]

8. Dubya's policies have been a disaster for small business.

There was an editorial in one of the mags that cater to small business about a year ago analyzing Bush’s policies. (Sorry, no link – I saw it in the print version). It basically said that his policies have been extremely harmful to small business because:

1. The tax cuts only benefited 3% of small business owners, rest got little or nothing.

2. Policy on tax on dividends is no help for small business; they don’t pay dividends for the most part. For those that do pay dividends, it takes away incentive to re-invest in the company.

3. Funding has been slashed for Small Business Development Centers and SBA loans.

There were some more reasons listed, these are the one’s I remember. The only "bright spot" pointed out by the mag was that now a small business owner, say the owner of a snow-cone stand, can now buy a new Hummer and write it off. Some help!

[F.Gordon]

9. Beats me.

:shrug:

Health Insurance premiums are going through the roof. Liability Insurance premiums have increased 50% to 100%. Local tax rates have increased on leasehold improvements, leased holdings, and business property.

All the services / products that Small Businesses purchase from large Corporations have increased in cost. Shipping, Telecommunication, Advertising, Bank Charges,......