Dan Quayle: “I want to thank my friend and colleague from North Carolina for bringing this bill to the floor, and I want to thank our…”

“I want to thank my friend and colleague from North Carolina for bringing this bill to the floor, and I want to thank our friends on the other side of the aisle for working on this important bill as well. Madam Chair, this is a commonsense amendment that will make it easier for American companies to raise capital, to expand, and to hire more workers. I support the gentleman from North Carolina's legislation, which removes an unnecessary barrier to allow start-ups and small businesses to raise capital through individual investments of up to $10,000, or 10 percent of an investor's income. My amendment would simply index this individual investment cap to inflation. Entrepreneurs and new businesses play a vital role in advancing both job creation and innovation in our country. Over the last three decades, new businesses have created nearly 40 million jobs and have been responsible for nearly all net new job creation. Unfortunately, the environment for new businesses has grown increasingly unfavorable. In the past 3 years, the number of new businesses launched has fallen 23 percent. Capital investment in start-up companies has decreased, and far fewer small companies are holding initial public offerings. Madam Chair, too often when legislation is not indexed to inflation, Congress must go back and amend current laws. For instance, $10,000 in 1980 would actually be $27,535 today.…”