Mandates make Small Business Owners Sick
Congress is at it again, using the excuse of the swine flu to mandate paid sick leave.  This time the pig’s nose is under the tent.  Last week the House Education and Labor Committee held a hearing on a proposal, H.R. 3991, the Emergency Influenza Containment Act.  If passed, this bill would require employers with as few as 15 employees to provide five days of paid sick leave per 12 month period to all full or part time workers who are sent home by their employer or directed to stay home by their employer because of contagious illness such as the H1N1 virus.  The Senate also held a hearing on the issue. It is pretty clear that some in Congress are using t

Health Care Legislation creates 111 New Bureaucracies
On November 7 around 11:15 pm when a lot of people were asleep, the House of Representatives passed (by two votes) a massive 2,032 page health care reform bill (HR 3962) that will cost $1.3 trillion, impose new taxes and mandate employers to provide health care coverage.  It is the wrong prescription for our economy, for consumers and for businesses of all sizes. The bill amounts to a federal takeover of our health care system.  It creates 111 new boards, bureaucracies, commissions and programs!  A few samples include the Health Choices Administration, Council for Emergency Care, National Women’s Health Information Center and the Public Health Investment Fund (a full list of

Estate Tax is Double Taxation and Should be Eliminated
The estate tax was debated on Capitol Hill last week and the NCPA had a front row seat.  The House Small Business Committee held a hearing “Small Businesses and the Estate Tax: Identifying Reforms to Meet the Needs of Small Firms and Family Farmers” where I testified about the need to eliminate the estate tax because it is: ANTI-family- Does not allow parents to pass their hard work and wealth on to their children ANTI-farm- Farms are especially vulnerable because they hold vast amounts of land which are subject to the estate tax as they are passed from generation to generation

President provides more access to credit for small business?
On October 21, the President announced new measures that he claims will be part of an ongoing effort to help small businesses access credit and create jobs.   At the heart of the proposal is to have the government make more loans available to our small businesses.  The three main components include: take further steps to provide small businesses with access to credit by supporting community bank lending through the Financial Stability Plan; seek legislation to increase maximum SBA loan sizes to allow more businesses to access the credit they need; and convening a Treasury-SBA Small Business Lending Conference to work with regulators, lenders and Congress to ensure credit is ava

October is National Work and Family Month
This week the U.S. House of Representatives passed House Resolution 768, expressing support for the designation of the month of October as “National Work and Family Month.”  It is a simple resolution that does a few good things: Recognizes the importance of balancing work and family to job productivity and healthy families; Recognizes that an important job characteristic is a work schedule that allows employees to spend time with families; Supports the goals and ideals of `National Work and Family Month’, and urges public officials, employers, employees, and the general public to work together to achieve more balance between work and family; and