Dear Mr. President,

by Dave on January 28, 2010

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Small businesses don’t need TARP money. They need stability. They could have used the swift and sure distribution of billions that Goldman Sachs got at the time, but by now the damage is done.
Part of the problem with targeting funds to small business is that the federal government defines small business as 500 employees or less, and most of the help goes to the 300+ crowd. We need to redefine “small business” as less than 50 or less than 20 employees.
Although I’m usually first in line to call for a tax cut, the deficit needs those billions more than businesses do right now.
Calling for a “spending freeze” and a “major jobs bill” in the same speech decreases the average person’s faith in government.
Big spending initiatives + tax cuts = deficit-growing, Bush-style governing. So while you take pot-shots at the prior administration, you seem to have decided to govern that way, too.
Massive increases in school choice options, including scholarship tax credits for underprivileged kids, are the easiest path to a world-class education system.
Hard truth: Every dollar you give to families for college results in a corresponding dollar increase in tuition.
How many times did you waive the “no lobbyists in my Administration” rule? 25? 30?

Politifcat fact-checks the Obama speech.

{ 3 comments }

pandora January 29, 2010 at 4:00 pm: Perhaps this might help.

So, today, in line with what I stated in the State of the Union, I’ve proposed a new jobs tax credit for small business. And here’s how it would work.

Employers would get a tax credit of up to $5,000 for every employee they add in 2010.

They’d get a tax break for increases in wages as well. So if you raise wages for employees making under $100,000, we’d refund part of your payroll tax for every dollar you increase those wages faster than inflation.

It’s a simple concept. It’s easy to understand. It would cut taxes for more than 1 million small businesses.
Dave January 29, 2010 at 4:07 pm: It’s not a bad idea, but if they were going to do this, they should have done it $797,000,000,000 ago.

And if there’s no stability, no one will hire anyway, because a) there won’t be a tax credit next year and b) even with a $5,000 credit, the employer is still shelling out a lot of money on a new employee.

We still need long-term stability. Everybody’s still scared to move forward.
Dave January 29, 2010 at 6:47 pm: Although I will give him credit for creating what looks like a tamper-proof tax credit and putting in safeguards for preventing fraud.

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