On the recordDecember 16, 2010
Mr. Chairman, job creation is priority number one. Fourteen million Americans are striving every day to find a job. But what they fail to understand in Washington, to get a job, you've got to promote small business and free enterprise and entrepreneurship. Seventy percent of all the jobs created in America are created by small business. In my State of Florida, 99 percent of all businesses registered in Tallahassee, our capital, are either small businesses or medium-sized businesses mainly, a couple of hundred employees or less. To raise taxes in this environment, when many businesses right now are struggling, on the verge of trying to stay open--many of them can't get credit. If we raise the taxes on small businesses--and a lot of people don't realize, a lot of small businesses are subchapter S, LLCs, partnerships, sole proprietorships, so it's all pass-through income to them personally. But raising taxes on small business, they're saying it will affect 48 percent of the businesses if we don't pass this today. People ask, Why is it that business doesn't have any confidence right now or the confidence they should? They just don't believe what's happening in Washington. The administration and this Congress, in their mind, and they're right, is very antibusiness. So if we want to create jobs, the last thing we should be doing is raising taxes on small businesses. If we want to help families and we want to get people back to work, we need to pass this bill and do what we can.…





