UpFront - January/February 2010
Eye on the Economy
NFIB navigates the latest economic news
Guest column by U.S. Sen. John Thune (S.D.)
This Is No Time for More Government Regulation and Spending
To say the least, this is a challenging environment for America’s independent business owners. Not only have they faced a tough economy--with jittery financial markets and wary consumers--but one policy proposal after another coming out of the administration and Congress reads like a blueprint for making things worse for business.
As we look for ways to pull our country out of the current economic troubles, we should focus on lowering taxes and creating a climate in which businesses can thrive and create jobs. That means taking every opportunity to reduce spending, cut the federal budget deficit and get government out of its dangerous entanglement in the private sector. My colleagues and I have proposed ways to achieve these goals and get America back on track.
The Senate healthcare plan presented in November is just one example of taking the wrong approach. As proposed, the plan would spend $2.5 trillion, funded largely through higher taxes on businesses and individuals in its first 10 years of full implementation. It would mandate a government-run insurance plan that will charge higher premiums than private insurers and impose more mandates on employers and workers. With the bill weighing in at more than 2,000 pages, you can only imagine how thick the new regulations will be and how much time and money businesses will have to spend trying to comply with the requirements.
In addition, the failed stimulus package, the government’s ownership of two major automakers (along with hundreds of banks and other companies) and the record-breaking federal deficit should worry the small business community. Pushing forward with more spending, more taxes and more regulation is not the solution.
There is strong skepticism that these policies will be more successful than other large government-run programs. Rather than creating jobs, additional government spending is creating nothing but more debt. Our economy, and our children, will be saddled with that debt for a long time to come.
America’s independent business owners are the bedrock of their communities, and they will be the engines that power our economic recovery. It is both unfair and unwise to tax and regulate those businesses to death at the same time we are counting on them to pull us out of trouble.
Now is the worst possible time to engage in this kind of risky experimentation at the expense of small businesses. Instead, Washington should be working to foster an environment in which those businesses can prosper and create new jobs.
Look for more guest columns from members of Congress in upcoming issues of MyBusiness.