Small Business Against Big Government

The Marketplace Fairness Act is a Tax Increase and America hates it

Proponents of the Marketplace Fairness Act (MFA) say that it’s not a tax increase, but merely a change in who collects an existing tax.  That’s inaccurate.  It is both a change in who collects a tax as well as a tax increase. A few questions for proponents of the MFA. 1. Will the MFA take […]

Say NO! The Internet Sales Tax is a Bad Tax, is Horrible Policy, is Hostile to Liberty, and Crushes Innovation

A tax that is so difficult to comply with, so convoluted and complex, that you have to exempt business selling under $1,000,000 from collecting and paying it is a BAD TAX and is BAD POLICY. Let your representatives know you oppose the online sales tax in its current form and that if they levy a tax, every company should have to collect it.

Washington Post: Job Creation During Obama’s Term Worse than It Looks

Unemployment at 8.1%? Not exactly, says the Washington Post. “If the same percentage of adults were in the workforce today as when Barack Obama took office, the unemployment rate would be 11.1 percent. If the percentage was where it was when George W. Bush took office, the unemployment rate would be 13.1 percent.” Oh, and […]

What is Big Government?

Big Government shouldn’t be confused with Government proper.  Government proper, limited in its power and scope to only those tasks which legitimately protect life, liberty, and property from fraud and criminality, is not Big Government.  It is the foundation of a free civilization. Here are some definitions of Big Government from a few online dictionaries. […]

She Speaks for All of Us – Standing Ovation!

NFIB and Senator Kyl Unveil Small Business Health Relief Act to Repeal Costly ObamaCare Mandates

Press release last month, but in case you missed it, have a read: WASHINGTON, D.C., Monday, May 23, 2011 — National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) president and CEO Dan Danner and small business owner Earl Hall joined U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ) today to unveil a bill that will address some of the most […]

Government Doing What It Does Best – Waste Your Money and Make Your Life Harder

Main Street creates approximately 70 percent of all jobs, yet the White House consistently and constantly acts against Main Street’s interests, making life harder and harder for small business.  A recent Op-Ed published at associatedcontent.com highlighted this.  Some excerpts: Complexities in the code and a labyrinth of rules to obtain credits mean tax compliance costs […]

Heads Up! Prepare Yourself for the Employer Mandate Penalties in the Healthcare Law

The National Federation of Independent Businesses recently put out a primer for Small Business Owners that is worth your time so that you can start planning your risk mitigation strategies now. The businesses that face potential penalties are those with 50 or more full-timers or full-time equivalents (FTEs) as well as owners with multiple businesses […]

Why Congressional Earmarks Have to Go

Over at the Legal Insurrection blog (a wonderful blog that we’d suggest you read regularly) a poster suggests that people who oppose earmarks are “Sweating the Small Stuff“, writing: On one hand, the whole notion of earmarks and pork barrel spending encourages many impractical pet projects from doofy legislators. To see their ban would send […]

To be against free markets is to be against freedom, choice, prosperity, and service

People who say they don’t want free markets, or who say they want to reduce or eliminate competition, are really just people who want to eliminate the virtues of service, freedom, prosperity and choice. Competition is a by-product.  It’s not something desirable in itself – it’s just what happens when other desirable things happen. Competition […]

Yes, Big Business Is Over-Regulated, But It’s Also “Under”-Accountable and “Under”-Responsible

The BP Oil Spill prompted brilliant libertarian legal theorist Richard Epstein to remind us that the problem isn’t regulation, it’s government limits on liability (see op-ed at the Wall Street Journal).  Big Business doesn’t mind regulation, as long as it can put caps on it’s liabilities (see “Too Big to Fail” … ) A tough […]

The Moocher Index Tracks the Non-Poor that Receive Government Income Transfers

Dan Mitchell at the Cato Institute has put together a Moocher Index to track which states have the largest number of non-poor people receiving welfare. A few quick observations. Why is Vermont (by far) the state with the largest proportion of non-poor people signed up for welfare programs? I have no idea, but maybe this […]

So Why No Economic Recovery? Avaricious Government and Hesitant Entrepreneurs.

The Federal Government’s wasteful spending, institutional meddling, and taxpayer plundering is giving us hesitant entrepreneurs. Robust job growth requires boldness and risk-taking in the private sector. What we have now is boldness and risk-taking in the public sector. It is loading as much debt onto the balance sheet as possible, and creating the predicate for […]

Great NFIB Report on how Obamacare Will Affect your Small Business

Too much great stuff to try and summarize here.  Just read it.  Full report available at this link (pdf). Also contains information on Cap and Tax and Labor Law changes being pursued. This Administration is BAD NEWS for Small Business.  Get informed by reading the report.  And then please share it with at least 5 […]

Art Laffer on the Coming Tax-Induced Crash of 2011

Art Laffer recently published an opinion in the Wall Street Journal titled “Tax Hikes and the 2011 Economic Collapse” that is worth your time.  Tax increases are coming.  And it won’t be pretty. It shouldn’t surprise anyone that the nine states without an income tax are growing far faster and attracting more people than are […]

Small Business Sentiment Slightly Up; However, Sales Volume and Profit Margins Stay Down

A recent NFIB survey finds small business sentiment slightly improving, but also that most small businesses are losing sales and giving up profit margin to stay alive. U.S. small businesses are slightly more optimistic about their economic outlook than they have been in the last two years but are still not ready to expand staffs […]

Obama Administration Laying Groundwork for Takeover of Internet. No Joke.

President Obama and his FCC chairman Julius Genachowski couldn’t take over the Internet the first time they tried.  Ever since the DC Court of Appeals stopped them the first time they tried to take it (they said it was not the province of the Executive, but the Legislature, to determine whether or not the FCC […]

George Will Brings the Paddle Down on “Progressivism’s” Backside

If you only read on thing this month, make it this article. Liberalism is, at heart, an impossible promise.   A promise that in aggregate the peoples of the world can consume more than they produce, that there is “such thing as a free lunch”.   Its ideal – the welfare state – is just as big […]

Public Employee Unions are Bad For Your Small Business

Public Employee Unions are bad for your local economy, bad for your small business, bad for your regulatory environment, and bad for your tax bill.  Public employees are often good people who want to make a positive impact on the word, but their unions are destructive, and their union involvement is killing America.  Taxpayers are saying […]

A New Look at Cash for Clunkers Confirms what Stimulus Programs do – Nothing (but Harm)

From the Coyote Blog, see the graph below.  Stimulus funds just create purchases now that will be forgone later.  And they subsidize the purchases with tax funds or debt, basically transferring funds from one person to another for no good reason (other than buying votes, of course). The dotted line simply averages the sales for […]

Health Care Reform Bill Buries Small Businesses in a Deluge of Paperwork

Human beings can have a high standard of living when their needs get met.  In a marketplace, needs get met best when a few conditions occur. 1) the person who has the need is able to communicate that need to someone who can provide for that need. 2) the person who has the means to […]