Free Republic

Barack Obama continues to insist on raising taxes for those vile rich people–those who earn $250,000 or more. Like the guy who fixes garage doors. I asked the garage door man what $250K means to him. His response was quick: “It’s my overhead.” A quarter million means the garage door man can meet his outrageous (this is SoCal) overhead. His basics: fees, insurance, taxes, marketing, vehicles, supplies and equipment. That’s it. How many employees does he get for $250K? None. All of that vast wealth nets him the ability to keep his doors open. Not enough left over to hire...

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National News Small Business Arsons on the Rise By Dennis Jay November 4, 2010 Susan Lukjan's specialty gourmet shop had financial problems. She'd also just signed a lease that committed her to the large expense of moving her Louisville, Ky., store to another location. Her Campbell's Gourmet Cottage mysteriously went up in flames before she made the move. Investigators quickly flagged her money problems as a motive. Lukjan also had just increased the coverage on her shop from $350,000 to $550,000. She told her insurance agent the value of her business had shot up because she bought a new range...

This should not come as any surprise, considering many women manage family household budgets, as well as start and maintain new small businesses. Also many conservative women are running for public office and this coming Tuesday could see a “spike” in the numbers on the federal and state levels. Also many, many women have had for nearly two years, been involved with the “tea party movement”, from attending to planning them. Sadly, many women have also been subjected to layoffs from job positions, which also make the people of my gender turn against the Democrats.

AMITY SHLAES is a syndicated columnist for Bloomberg and a senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a graduate of Yale University and pursued postgraduate studies at the Free University in Berlin. She has served as a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal and as a columnist for the Financial Times. In 2009 she was winner of the Hayek Prize, a book prize from the Thomas Smith Foundation of the Manhattan Institute. In 2003 she was the J.P. Morgan Fellow in Finance and Economics at the American Academy in Berlin....

VERNON HILLS, Ill.—Rick Woldenberg runs an educational products company from a suburban Chicago office stacked with brightly colored toys. He backed Barack Obama in 2008. But he has turned on Democrats this year. Rick Woldenberg, chairman of Learning Resources in Chicago, backed President Barack Obama in 2008 but is now raising money for Republicans. .Mr. Woldenberg has never before been active in politics, but he is angry that Congress and the Obama administration won't revise expansive new rules on lead testing in children's products that he says will kill his business, Learning Resources Inc. So he is raising money for...

Last week, President Obama called out the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, accusing it of funneling contributions to the business advocacy group from foreign corporations to its U.S. political activity. This, of course, ignited a political firestorm. The left had a “eureka!” moment. After all, American typically don’t like foreign actors meddling in their elections. Surely foreign corporations should have no say in who Americans elect? The right, meanwhile, responded in disgust. Today, Hot Air’s Ed Morrissey described the allegations on the Chamber as a form of McCarthyism. I have to side with Ed. The President and his cohorts expect the...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Scoring a prized political victory five weeks before the Nov. 2 elections, President Barack Obama on Monday signed a bill to help small businesses expand and hire by cutting their taxes and creating a $30 billion loan fund. Obama said the incentives will help small businesses right away. But any hiring may not be enough to help some Democrats ahead of crucial midterm elections in which voters are expected to vent their frustrations over a slow-growing economy and near-10 percent unemployment. The bill had been delayed for months, blocked in the Senate by Republicans. Most in the...

Ninety-one percent of small business owners surveyed in August by the National Federation of Independent Business said all their credit needs were met. Only 4 percent cited a lack of financing as their top business problem. Plans for capital spending were at a 35-year low. Jack Rajala just laughs when asked if he wants to take out a loan today. He's in a fight to save his family's lumber business that has been buffeted by the recession and housing meltdown. "I've seen many ups and downs; this is unquestionably the toughest," said the 71-year-old Rajala. Since 2008, his company closed...

Business owners are skeptical of "help" from Washington. In fact, our research indicates that business thinks Washington is so far removed from their real-world concerns that they won’t know how to be of any practical assistance.

Passage of the $42 billion small-business bill is virtually assured after two lame-duck Republicans joined 59 Democratic senators voting in favor of the bill on Thursday, but don't expect this new stimulus bill to help the economy avoid a double-dip recession. Why? Look no further than the two key components of the bill: $30 billion to boost lending to small businesses and $12 billion in targeted tax cuts for qualifying small businesses. First and most important, the $30 billion won't actually go to small businesses in the form of loans; it will go to small banks in the form of...

Barack Obama’s small business jobs bill contains a dangerous loophole that could encourage billions of dollars in fraud in small business contracting programs, and protect fraudulent companies from prosecution. The bill is currently pending in the U.S. Senate. Section 1341 of H.R. 5297, the Small Business Jobs Act, contains provisions that would allow the Small Business Administration (SBA) to develop policies and procedures that would protect large businesses that have misrepresented themselves as small businesses from prosecution for felony contracting fraud. Since 2003, over a dozen federal investigations have found billions of dollars a month in federal small business contracts...

I just received a robo call "service call" from Obama admin to help me apply for a grant...non refundable grant for my small business. Never asked for anything. Press 1 to talk to an expert. Why would they do that??? Why are they in such a hurry to spend..er...my money? A robocall to push people to apply for a grant?

Small businesses feel squeezed by Obama policies By V. Dion Haynes Washington Post Staff Writer Monday, September 6, 2010; 12 Last year, even as he struggled through the worst of the recession, Chris Upham said revenue at his District-based real estate and construction businesses doubled -- allowing him to hire two agents. But Upham said he hasn't increased his staff thus far in 2010 and he doesn't expect to for the remainder of the year. That's because his taxes rose sevenfold. And he said he anticipates they'll increase again if the Bush tax cuts for people earning $250,000 and above...

With the economy sliding during Wreckovery Summer and jobs growth falling behind the number of new workers with each new jobless report, one might think that Democrats would have figured out that they need capital to get back in the game. One way to entice wealth back into economy-expanding service would be to extend the tax cuts that expire at the end of the year, especially those at the top end of the spectrum, in order to keep potential investors from sheltering it instead. The Wall Street Journal reports that Democrats and the White House have decided to mischaracterize the...

The War On Small Business By Addison Wiggin 09/02/10 Baltimore, Maryland – Today, we revisit a recurring theme: the assault on enterprise. It was the subject of our symposium in Vancouver in July. In this episode, we look at a particularly vulnerable segment of the economy: small businesses. To help set the stage, let’s look at some important stats from the Small Business Administration (SBA). Small businesses: •Represent 99.7% of all employer[s] •Employ just over half of all private-sector employees •Pay 44% of total U.S. private payroll •Have generated 64% of net new jobs over the past 15 years •Create...

You could take what Obama knows about small business and the mindset of the people who own them and shove it up an ant's a** and it would rattle around like a marble in the Super Dome. Neal Boortz

My wife and I recently shot our wad on some high-grade advertising, in a desperate bid to resurrect our (formerly successful) small construction business. That advertising is suddenly producing new leads better than we ever imagined it would. Our phone is literally off the hook. We're being inundated with calls for our services, and are scrambling to answer them all. Trouble is, we're in no position to properly service all of this sudden demand, mostly due to the lack of some basic equipment, and a fully operational crew. Finding the qualified labor is no problem, but to produce the product...

We know about the backroom deals made to get Congressmen to vote for ObamaCare but there were also favors cut out for unions, drug makers, and even small business to get them to support the program. Guess what? The "credit" offered to small business to help them pay for the increased health care costs-due to ObamaCare mandates- turns out to be not much help at all. Many businesses cannot take advantage of the tax credit to reduce their cost of providing health insurance. Business Week reports: Eager to promote the new small-business tax credit, the government this spring mailed 4...

Why Small Businesses Aren’t Hiring By Scott Shane Tuesday, August 24, 2010 Filed under: Economic Policy, Boardroom, Government & Politics, Public Square In the recoveries from the previous two recessions, small businesses led job creation. This time, however, small businesses aren’t hiring. Here’s why. In the recoveries from the previous two recessions, small businesses led job creation. This time, however, small businesses aren’t hiring. That about-face has left a lot of economic prognosticators scratching their heads. I think the reason is clear. The collapse in home prices is holding back small-business hiring. And unless we fix the residential real estate...