Articles

By Rep. Bill Cassidy; Politico President Barack Obama again talked about small businesses last week. “Government can’t create jobs to replace the millions that we lost in the recession,” the president said at the White House, “but it can create the conditions for small businesses to hire more people, through steps like tax breaks.” He’s right. But it is hard to reconcile the president’s statement ... Read more »

By Jay Heflin; The Hill House Small Business Committee ranking member Sam Graves (R-Mo.) on Tuesday sent a follow-up letter to Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Doug Shulman asking how he plans to implement the 1099 reporting rule included in the new healthcare law that requires businesses and organizations to report all purchases above $600 to the IRS. Graves sent a similar letter to Sh... Read more »

By Richard Cohen; Politico House Minority Leader John Boehner today delivered scathing criticism of House operations and promised major congressional reforms if he becomes speaker following the November election. “The House finds itself in a state of emergency. The institution does not function, does not deliberate and seems incapable of acting on the will of the people. From the floor to the comm... Read more »

By Larry Kudlow; National Review President Obama is crowing about his small-business bill, signed into law on Monday. “It was critical that we cut taxes and made more loans available to entrepreneurs,” he said. Trouble is, small businesses and community banks don’t want Obama’s $30 billion program. That’s right. They don’t want it. An AP story quotes community bankers who do not want the Treasury ... Read more »

By Nicole Crain and W. Mark Crain; Wall Street Journal The annual cost of federal regulations in the United States increased to more than $1.75 trillion in 2008, a 3% real increase over five years, to about 14% of U.S. national income. This cost is in addition to the federal tax burden of 21%, for a combined cost of 35% of national income. One out of every three dollars earned in the U.S. goes to ... Read more »

By; Washington Times Editorial An 18-month recession came to an official end in June 2009, according to a study released last week by the National Bureau of Economic Research. For good reason, few in the public believe it's over. With the economy stuck in neutral and unemployment locked at 9.6 percent, most see no choice but to keep cutting back because the future looks no brighter. Such sacrifice... Read more »

By Ken Newton; St. Joseph News Press Congressional Democrats and the White House hailed passage Thursday of a bill meant to increase lending opportunities for small businesses. Republicans called it Bailout Redux. The U.S. House approved the Small Business Lending Fund Act by a vote of 237 to 187. Only one Republican, Rep. Walter B. Jones of North Carolina, sided with the majority. Northwest Misso... Read more »

By Wall Street Journal House Republicans released their "Pledge to America" campaign agenda yesterday, and it was quickly attacked by Democrats as dangerously radical and by the blogging right as dangerously cautious. The reality is that it's somewhere in between, a consensus document typical of Congress that is very strong in promising to shut down the Obama agenda but less clear as a road map to... Read more »

By Sarah Needleman; Wall Street Journal Several provisions of the health-care overhaul that go into effect on Thursday will expand the amount of coverage that many small-business owners provide their employees. But the changes are also expected to increase insurance premiums. The changes include restrictions on annual limits; new appeals processes; the extension of dependent coverage up to age 26;... Read more »

By Jeff Cornwall; Christian Science Monitor It looks like the so-called Small Business Bill is about to become law. So what will it offer our ailing small businesses? More debt and more government intervention. Most of the attempt at stimulating small business in the Small Business Bill comes in the forms of offering more loans to small businesses. This is coming from government pumping money into... Read more »