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Entries Tagged as 'Small Business'

Obama opens door for talks with GOP on tax-cut extension

November 8th, 2010 · Change of Power, Small Business

By Lori Montgomery – Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 7, 2010; 11:16 PM

President Obama said a Republican proposal to preserve the full array of Bush administration tax cuts for two more years presents a “basis for conversation” that could lead to a compromise as lawmakers prepare to meet next week for a high-stakes showdown over taxes.

However, a senior House Republican on Sunday flatly rejected the option most favored by the White House: decoupling the Bush tax cuts that benefit the wealthy from the cuts that benefit the vast majority of Americans by extending each set of provisions for a different period of time.

“No, I am not for decoupling the rates,” Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the No.2 Republican in the House, said on “Fox News Sunday.” He echoed the GOP argument that such a move virtually would guarantee the eventual expiration of tax breaks in the upper brackets, where some of the most successful small businesses pay taxes.

“I am not for raising taxes in a recession, especially when it comes to the job creators that we need so desperately to start creating jobs again,” Cantor said. “I am not for sending any signal to small businesses in this country that they’re going to have their tax rates go up.”

The comments highlighted the shifting political landscape in the wake of a Republican landslide in last week’s midterm elections. Obama, who has argued strenuously that the nation cannot afford to keep the tax cuts for millionaires, has been adopting a conciliatory tone in recent days in hopes of reaching a deal with resurgent Republicans to prevent all the cuts from expiring on schedule — an outcome that would sharply increase IRS withholding in January for virtually every American taxpayer, including the middle-class families Obama has sworn to protect.

“My number one priority coming into this is making sure that middle class families don’t see their tax rates go up January first,” Obama said in an interview with CBS’ “60 Minutes” set to air Sunday night.

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Employers looking at health insurance options

October 25th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government Control, Healthcare, Immigration, Money Lost, National Security, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Small Business, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Treason, Treasury, Unemployment

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR – The Associated Press
Monday, October 25, 2010; 4:12 AM

WASHINGTON — The new health care law wasn’t supposed to undercut employer plans that have provided most people in the U.S. with coverage for generations.

But last week a leading manufacturer told workers their costs will jump partly because of the law. Also, a Democratic governor laid out a scheme for employers to get out of health care by shifting workers into taxpayer-subsidized insurance markets that open in 2014.

While it’s too early to proclaim the demise of job-based coverage, corporate number crunchers are looking at options that could lead to major changes. Gov. Phil Bredesen, D-Tenn., said the economics of dropping coverage are “about to become very attractive to many employers, both public and private.”

That’s just not going to happen, White House officials say.

“The absolute certainty about the Affordable Care Act is that for many, many employers who cover millions of people, it increases the incentives for them to offer coverage,” said Jason Furman, an economic adviser to President Barack Obama.

Yet at least one major employer has shifted a greater share of plan costs to workers, and others are weighing the pros and cons of eventually forcing employees to strike out on their own.

“I don’t think you are going to hear anybody publicly say ‘We’ve made a decision to drop insurance,’ ” said Paul Keckley, executive director of the Deloitte Center for Health Solutions. “What we are hearing in our meetings is, ‘We don’t want to be the first one to drop benefits, but we would be the fast second.’ We are hearing that a lot.” Deloitte is a major accounting and consulting firm.

“My conclusion on all of this is that it is a huge roll of the dice,” said James Klein, president of the American Benefits Council, which represents big company benefits administrators. “It could work out well and build on the employer-based system, or it could begin to dismantle the employer-based system.”

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New coalition wants companies to pledge not to use corporate dollars on political campaigns

October 4th, 2010 · Accountability, Politics, Small Business

By Dan Eggen – Monday, October 4, 2010; 1:20 AM

Several prominent Democratic politicians plan to announce a new coalition Monday aimed at pressuring major companies to foreswear using corporate money on political campaigns.

The Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending, spearheaded by New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio (D), aims to secure promises from major corporations to fully disclose any political spending and, ideally, to avoid spending corporate money directly on elections.

The effort marks the latest response to the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling early this year in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which allows corporations, unions and nonprofit groups to spend unlimited amounts of money on elections. The ruling has helped fuel a record year for spending by outside interest groups, mostly in favor of Republicans, records show.

The new coalition springs out of a successful effort by de Blasio, who serves as a trustee for New York City’s largest pension fund, to convince Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley to adopt policies against spending money from their general treasuries in elections. The firms will still run their own political-action committees, which are operated independently, officials said.

De Blasio said in an interview that the national effort was necessary because of the failure of Congress to agree to new disclosure requirements for corporations.

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A Republican stimulus that just might work

September 12th, 2010 · Accountability, Change of Power, Obama Exposed, Small Business

By Ezra Klein – Sunday, September 12, 2010

It’s been a long week of stimulus proposals here in Washington. Our anti-business White House proposed hundreds of billions in tax cuts for businesses, reiterated its support for $30 billion to support lending to small businesses, and proposed $50 billion in new infrastructure investment — money that would go, ultimately, to pay private businesses to build things. Marx would be so proud.

But the more interesting action was on the Republican side of the aisle. On Thursday, House Minority Leader John A. Boehner released a “two-point plan for immediate, bipartisan action on jobs and spending.” Boehner’s proposal? Extend the Bush tax cuts and pass a budget holding spending at 2008 levels. That’s a bit back to the future — or at least back to the Aughts. The worst economic crisis since the 1930s, and all we need to do is extend some tax cuts from 2001 and 2003 and hold down spending a bit? This doesn’t require any new thinking at all?

The most stinging counterpoint didn’t come from Nancy Pelosi, though. It came, quite inadvertently, from Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, a wonkish Republican who led George W. Bush’s Office of Management and Budget from 2001 to 2003, and who, that same Thursday morning, published a plan that put to shame the proposals from both the administration and the House Republicans.

“A stagnant, impoverished America will not be a greener or safer or fairer place,” Daniels warned. “Grown-ups make trade-offs. Pass the brandy, then let’s get busy.” And get busy he did: Daniels proposed a one-year suspension in the Social Security payroll tax for workers. In an interview, he estimated that this would raise about $350 billion. He also envisioned a tax break allowing businesses to fully expense their capital investments for the next year. As it happened, the administration proposed exactly that this week, though Daniels noted that there was no word of it two weeks ago, when he first drafted his op-ed. “If they’re there,” he told me, “that’s good.”

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Health insurance tax credit likely to affect small part of small-business workforce

September 2nd, 2010 · Democrats, Economy, Federal Spending, Healthcare, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama Exposed, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Small Business, Tax Dollars, Taxes

By N.C. Aizenman Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 2, 2010; 12:09 AM

About 16.6 million workers are employed by small businesses that are eligible for health insurance tax credits under the new health-care law, according to estimates that were to be released by a nonpartisan research foundation Thursday.

However, the report by the Commonwealth Fund estimated that only 3.4 million of those workers are at firms that would take advantage of the tax credit. For the most part, those are firms that already offer their employees health insurance.

Those firms that do not offer coverage are unlikely to consider the tax breaks enough of a financial incentive to start doing so, according to the report’s authors.

Still, the authors stressed the potential stimulus benefits of the tax credits, which apply beginning this taxable year and will increase in value in 2014 from as much as 35 percent of an employer’s premium contribution to as much as 50 percent. (The lower the wages and number of workers at a small business, the greater the size of the tax credit it is eligible for.)

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that by 2016, the last year for which the tax credits will be available, they will have reduced health insurance premiums for small business by 8 to 11 percent.

At that point, small businesses and their employees will be able to buy comprehensive insurance on state-based exchanges, which will be established in 2014 and are expected to offer more affordable rates than available in the current market.

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Democrats use misleading bill title to get more votes in November at Small Business expense

July 31st, 2010 · Congress, Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Economy, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government Control, Non-Transparency, Small Business

Republicans continue Senate filibuster of small-business bill, stymie Democrats

By Lori Montgomery Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 30, 2010

In a fresh blow to President Obama‘s jobs agenda, the Senate on Thursday shelved a plan to create a $30 billion loan fund for cash-strapped small businesses, delaying final passage of a top administration priority until September at the earliest.

Though Senate leaders in both parties were still working toward a compromise late Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) said the Senate would not return to the bill until next week. Even if the Senate approved it, the bill would have to go back to the House, which is set to begin its August break on Friday.

The bill, which also includes $12 billion in business tax breaks and additional aid for state lending programs, has won the support of more than 100 business groups, including such traditional GOP allies as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said that many Republicans also support many of the measure’s provisions, which could aid a key political constituency, spur hiring and help reduce a 9.5 percent unemployment rate as lawmakers head into the November elections.

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Democrats HIDE unrelated bill with in Financial Reform Bill.

July 21st, 2010 · Congress, Corruption, Democrats, Economy, Ethics, Finance, Government, Government Control, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Small Business, Technology, Terrorism from Within

U.S. financial reform bill also targets ‘conflict minerals’ from Congo

By Mary Beth Sheridan Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, July 21, 2010

The financial regulation bill that President Obama will sign into law on Wednesday is supposed to clean up Wall Street. But an obscure passage buried deep in the 2,300-page legislation aims to transform a very different place — eastern Congo, labeled the “rape capital of the world.”

The passage, tucked into the bill’s “Miscellaneous Provisions,” will require thousands of U.S. companies to disclose what steps they are taking to ensure that their products, including laptops, cellphones and medical devices, don’t contain “conflict minerals” from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The sale of such minerals has fueled a nearly 15-year war that has been marked by a horrific epidemic of sexual violence.

The issue of “conflict minerals” was barely mentioned during congressional debate on the Wall Street bill. But it has attracted growing concern from an unlikely alliance of conservatives and liberals — from Sen. Sam Brownback ((R-Kan.) to feminist Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues.” Activists hope to ultimately see an international system for curbing the trade, such as the one that has slowed the sale of “blood diamonds” from West Africa.

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New health-care rules multiply man-hours for policymakers, bureaucrats

June 7th, 2010 · Corruption, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Government Control, Greed, Healthcare, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Small Business, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, Treason

By N.C. Aizenman – Thursday, June 3, 2010

At the Department of Health and Human Services, the team charged with writing new health insurance rules has ditched the fridge and microwave in their break room so they can have more work space.

At the Labor Department, a clue to the hours staff members are keeping is offered by the motion-activated lights in the hallways. They are on by 6 a.m. and don’t flicker off until long after dark.

The health-care overhaul may have slipped from the headlines since President Obama signed the bill into law in March. But the gargantuan chore of putting the statute‘s more than 2,000 pages of provisions into practice is keeping Washington’s policymakers and bureaucrats busier than ever.

“As soon as the bill passed, I sent an e-mail to congratulate a friend of mine at HHS who was heavily involved working with Congress,” recalled Assistant Secretary of Labor Phyllis C. Borzi. “She sent me an e-mail right back that said, ‘Roll up your sleeves, my friend. Now the hard work begins.’ ”

The White House largely remains in the driver’s seat.

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Stocks plunge at closing despite Democrat optimism of recovery.

May 20th, 2010 · Auto Industry, Banking Industry, Deception, Democrats, Ethics, Federal Spending, Finance, Government, Government Control, Greed, Healthcare, Housing Industry, Money Lost, Non-Transparency, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US, Small Business, Stimulus, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Unemployment

UPDATED at 4:18 p.m.

Stocks crashed at closing, closing at their lowest point since February. The Dow suffered the biggest one-day percentage drop since the crash of March 2009.

The Dow closed down 3.6 percent at 10,068.01, coming very close to cracking the 10,000-point barrier, a key psychological level. All 30 Dow stocks closed down.

The broader S&P 500 closed down a whopping 3.9 percent, at 1,071.59. This is actually much more troubling that the Dow’s dive, because the Dow is only 30 blue-chip stocks. The S&P is 500 stocks across a number of sectors. It was the biggest one-day percentage drop in the index since April 2009. Only three of the 500 stocks closed up.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq closed down 4.1 percent at 2,204.01. It was the biggest one-day percentage drop in the Nasdaq since February 2009.

Crude settled just under $70 per barrel, off its lows of the day.

Markets are down now for five of the past six sessions.

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Senate passes amendment on debit and credit card swipe fees

May 15th, 2010 · Banking Industry, Finance, Senate, Small Business

By Brady Dennis and Ylan Q. Mui Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, May 14, 2010

Retailers won a long-sought victory late Thursday as the Senate approved a measure that would give them more power over the fees they pay to banks each time shoppers swipe a credit or debit card.

The controversial amendment by Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) represents one element of a broader overhaul of financial regulations, but it is a piece that ordinary consumers could feel most directly. It passed 64 to 33, with 17 Republicans joining dozens of Democrats.

The measure allows stores to give customers discounts for paying with cash or using cards with cheaper fees, and it would permit retailers to set price thresholds for accepting credit cards. It also tasks the Federal Reserve with crafting regulations for determining whether swipe fees for debit cards are “reasonable and proportional.”

“Small businesses and their customers will be able to keep more of their own money,” Durbin said in a statement. “Making sure small businesses can grow and prosper is vital to putting our country back on solid economic footing.”

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