Published on July 27, 2012
By David Brodwin, US News
David Brodwin is a cofounder and board member of American Sustainable Business Council. Follow him on Twitter at @davidbrodwin.
America loves small business. We honor the toughness and dedication it takes to keep a business going. We appreciate the jobs and incomes they provide and generate. We enjoy the distinctive flavor that small, locally-owned businesses bring to a neighborhood.
Sadly, our admiration for small business has been exploited. It’s exploited by politicians who claim to support small business, while pushing policies that actually harm them. Whenever a politician wants to kill something, a favorite strategy is to say that it “hurts small business.”
The misrepresentation of small business now com from conservative Republicans who cater to large multinational corporations and seek to discredit policies of the Obama administration. Here are some recent examples in healthcare, tax reform, regulations, and the farm bill:
[See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.]
Healthcare. Critics of the Affordable Care Act, also called Obamacare, claim that the legislation would somehow hurt small business. Nothing in the act supports this claim. All businesses with less than 50 employees are exempt from the requirement to offer insurance or pay a penalty. Ninety-seven percent of small businesses meet this exemption. Businesses with 50-199 employees pay only $2,000 per uninsured employee, less than half the cost of the averag
Original Article:Â http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/economic-intelligence/2012/07/27/gop-exploits-small-business-for-political-gain