Jump start that Engine, Help Small Business to Hire

( – promoted by buhdydharma )

Obama: Small Business Key for Recovery

Kent Bernhard, Jr. — Jan 27, 2010

The president proposed eliminating all capital-gains taxes on small-business investment, creating tax incentives for small businesses to hire new workers and raise the wages of those they already employ, and steering $30 billion in money from the Wall Street bailout to community banks to lend to small businesses.

“Now, the true engine of job creation in this country will always be America’s businesses. But government can create the conditions necessary for businesses to expand and hire more workers,” Obama said. “We should start where most new jobs do–in small businesses, companies that begin when an entrepreneur takes a chance on a dream, or a worker decides its time she became her own boss.”

http://www.portfolio.com/busin…

OK, how will Small Business, get the help they need, to put Americans back on the Road to Recovery? Especially as more and more of them are looking to set up a company in Malta or other countries, and fairly so considering the current conditions in the States.

This “Populist” site has boiled down the Small Business “Jump Starting” Bullet Points, from last night’s State of the Union Speech, by President Barack Obama.

Jobs Program Redux

Robert Oak, The Economic Populist — 01/27/2010

Here are the main elements, laid out in the State of the Union Speech.

— Take $30 billion of the [TARP] money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit [Subsidized Small Business Loans].

— Small Business tax credit – one that will go to over one million small businesses who hire new workers or raise wages

— Eliminate all capital gains taxes on small business investment

— Tax incentive for all businesses, large and small, to invest in new plants and equipment

— We can put Americans to work today building the infrastructure of tomorrow [Direct Infrastructure spending]

— Slash the tax breaks for companies that ship our jobs overseas and give those tax breaks to companies that create jobs in the United States of America

—– Robert Oak continues his commentary —–

We must get the hiring tax credit tied to only U.S. citizens, LPR workers*. We cannot let this credit be used to import even more foreign workers, encourage even more illegal immigration or hire workers who happen to not be on U.S. shores. (…)

The tax incentives for capital investments by businesses, again, needs to be tied to a Buy American requirement.

http://www.economicpopulist.or…

Footnote* LPR Definition: Lawful permanent immigrants, with less than five years of legal residency.

In short, we need to Create American Jobs for American Workers.

Rep Phil Hare D-IL, has a House Bill (HR-4290) with 56 Co-Sponsors, that would do just that — Put at least 2 million Americans back to work IMMEDIATELY, by using 60 Billion dollars of excess TARP funds each year. I wrote about this a few days ago.

Union President of the AFL-CIO agrees with the President’s Jump Start plan — although he does wish it would go even further …

Trumka: Obama Absolutely Right to Make Jobs Top Priority

by Mike Hall, Jan 28, 2010

As Obama said tonight:

Jobs must be our number one focus in 2010, and that is why I am calling for a new jobs bill tonight.

Obama called for small business tax breaks to encourage hiring and infrastructure spending. As soon as the businesses have been able to catch up with their work, they will be forced into having to pay their taxes again, which could cause them to feel overwhelmed. Hiring a tax preparer that is local to you could help with this area of your business, as well as ensuring that you file and pay the necessary taxes to the Government so your company can stay afloat. For the time being, business tax breaks can thoroughly benefit small businesses. Whether they are about to hire business plan writers or looking for business insurance, this could be good news for new business owners who want to start their own enterprise. He urged passage of tax incentives for larger business to keep and create jobs in the United States, and an end to tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. He also proposed taking $30 billion of the money Wall Street banks have repaid and use it to help community banks give small businesses the credit they need to stay afloat-a proposal similar to one in our AFL-CIO jobs initiative.

As Richard Trumka [AFL-CIO President] said:

We must act on a scale that will be meaningful: We need more than 10 million jobs just to get out of the hole we’re in. We want health care fixed. We want our leaders to break the stranglehold of Wall Street and the big banks and make them pay to repair the economic damage they created.

[…]

The AFL-CIO’s five-point plan to create jobs immediately would begin to put people back to work and ease the economic hardships on Main Street’s working families […]

— Extending unemployment insurance for the long-term jobless (due to run out next month) along with expanding food stamp assistance, and health care benefits (COBRA) for unemployed workers and their families through COBRA.

— Rebuilding the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.

— Increasing aid to state and local governments to maintain vital services and jobs.

— Funding jobs in neglected communities.

— Using left over bank bailout funds to get credit moving to small Main Street businesses.

http://blog.aflcio.org/2010/01…

Even Wall Street seems to grudgingly like the Pro-Business aspects of the plan:

Jan 28, 2010 — WASHINGTON (Dow Jones)

In addition to the depreciation tax break, Obama will use Wednesday’s address to push for other initiatives designed to reignite hiring by small businesses, part of a broader jobs agenda. The president will call for eliminating capital-gains taxes on investments in small businesses and renew efforts to give small employers a tax credit for new hires.

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/sto…

The drain on Jobs in America IS significant. If something serious is not done soon — America may find it difficult to avoid becoming a second-rate, or even third rate country. The downward trends have been building for a while now, thanks to the GOP’s “hands off” approach to govening:

WORKING AMERICA’s Job Tracker Exposes Companies That Export Jobs

AFL-CIO — September 16, 2004

Since President George W. Bush took office in 2001, the United States has lost 2.7 million manufacturing jobs and 850,000 professional and business services and information jobs, many of which have been shipped overseas. In fact, up to 14 million white-collar jobs could be sent overseas in the coming years, according to a [2003] study by the Fisher Center for Real Estate and Urban Economics housed at the University of California, Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

http://www.aflcio.org/issues/j…

If Small Business, is the Engine of an Economy, then Workers spending their Paychecks, are the Fuel of that keeps that Engine running. … And it’s long past time, for us to “Start our Engines”.

The Senate HAD a Bill in hoppers to Reverse those Job Exporting Trends, S.14. But it seems to be MIA, as far as I can tell. Perhaps it’s time they dust it off, and put it back up for Debate ???

Expanding Economic Opportunity S. 14

Democrats understand that the most effective means of increasing opportunity for our families is a high quality, good paying job. We are committed to expanding economic opportunity to all Americans and investing in America to create the new jobs of the future

[…]

End Tax Break for Companies Exporting Jobs. The tax code allows companies that earn income in foreign countries to defer paying tax on these profits until they are brought back to the United States. This quirk in the tax code provides a tax incentive for companies to move U.S. production facilities abroad, even if the eventual market for their products remains in the United States. Democrats will eliminate this loophole by requiring companies to pay tax immediately on the profits they earn abroad, but only with respect to products that are imported back into the United States. Companies that locate production facilities abroad for the purpose of serving those foreign markets would not be affected by this change.

http://democrats.senate.gov/ec…

Senator Jim Webb, D-VA, had some keen insights into the Jobs Exporting problem, as it severely effected his constitutents:

Senate should eliminate outsourcing tax credit

Jim Webb — August 11, 2006

America is increasingly divided into three parts, those at the top have never had it better, while the middle class is squeezed by the rising cost of health care, energy and college tuition. Those at the bottom risk becoming part of a permanent underclass, stuck forever in the cycle of poverty.

Even though many of the economic forces responsible for this transition are irreversible, the damaging policies maintained by our government, which accelerate these forces and hurt American workers, are not. Since 2000, more than 450,000 jobs have been sent overseas. Because of a perverse part of our tax code, moving manufacturing plants overseas is actually a profitable exercise for companies that wish to avoid paying corporate taxes.

[…]

This process is being repeated in countless other industries. A recent study estimates that three million jobs will be lost to outsourcing by 2015. These lost jobs mean a loss of $176 billion in wages for American workers. And while workers suffer, corporations celebrate.

http://www.roanoke.com/editori…

I seriously doubt this Problem has GOTTEN Better, since Senator Webb, first wrote about it. If anything, it appears to have gotten much worse, given the state of Unemployment, and structural change that has been occurring for decades, with regards to American “Blue Collar” Jobs. (“White Collar” Jobs are hardly safe from this race to the bottom either.)

Our Senators and Representatives need to ask themselves:

EXACTLY Who do they Represent, anyways?

And if they figure out it’s suppose to be US, the People, the American Worker, the Tax-Payer, the Voter …

Then next, they need to rise to the Challenge that President Obama, directed their way, in last night’s SOTU Address:

President Obama:

China’s not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany’s not waiting. India’s not waiting. These nations aren’t standing still. These nations aren’t playing for second place. They’re putting more emphasis on math and science. They’re rebuilding their infrastructure. They are making serious investments in clean energy because they want those jobs.

[…]

I do not accept second place for America.

http://www.economicpopulist.or…

AND then those “distinguished colleagues” need to figure out how to Quit “Standing Still”, and get OFF their “collective asses” and start passing laws that will get the American People back to work again!

AND if they don’t — they may find themselves in the Unemployment line too, and sooner than they realize (if MA is any guide).

Senators and Representatives, word of advice:

Grow up already — And DO your Jobs!