Roy Blunt: “Let me just talk a little bit about the startup act that Senator Coons and I have worked on. The Senator mentioned, I…”

“Let me just talk a little bit about the startup act that Senator Coons and I have worked on. The Senator mentioned, I think, all the cosponsors of that: Senator Rubio, Senator Stabenow, Senator Moran, Senator Kaine, Senator Schumer, and Senator Enzi. What that does is try to extend the opportunity of research and development to startup businesses. The way the tax credit works, you can deduct those costs from the taxes you pay. Well, if you are a startup business, you often do not have any profit to deduct from. That is part of the courage, frankly, of starting a business. You are almost insured, guaranteed, that for the first weeks, months, sometimes the first years, depending on how big a venture this is, you are not making money yet. So what the Senator and I and our friends have done in the startup act is say--these people would have employees--so what we do is allow the same tax credit for a big corporation or a big business or a highly successful business with lots of profit to be applied against what they pay as taxes for their employees--the Social Security tax, the other taxes that are paid--and, again, trying to encourage innovation. We all know that small business is the engine that drives the country. But also small business can be the engine that drives manufacturing, if we figure out a way to let them have some of the same benefits that existing businesses have that have already gotten themselves in a profit-making situation.…”