I’m no economist but my husband and I created and still own our nearly 25 year old small business.  We are responsible for the incomes of 12 families plus our own, and that’s a responsibility we do not take lightly.  So when the tax plans of the presidential candidates are being thrashed around, as in today’s Press guest editorial that bashed McCain’s proposal, I take a closer look. 

The author of the guest editorial was not balanced in his approach. Numbers appeared in unusual formulas and formats, so as to make them look worse if they were McCain’s and better if they were Obama’s.  It seemed like a lot of distortion to me.

Here’s my read on the situation:  We need jobs, jobs, jobs.  We need to grow our economy back and we need to do it ourselves, not depend on the government.  Any plan that raises taxes on business will hurt jobs.

Our country has the second highest corporate tax rate in the world, at 35%.  Many  small businesses are not c-corporations so don’t pay that high rate.  There are three other business tax categories available: sub s-corporation, LLC and sole proprietorship, all of which have to report business profits as personal income.  So, when Obama says he’ll tax “rich” people making over $250,000, he’s including a huge number of small businesses.  The owners don’t keep that money for themselves, those are their business earnings and most of it has to stay in the business or they can’t function.  When the taxes go up, the jobs will be cut.  That’s the way it works.  So “middle income” people WILL get hurt.  Jobs will go, the cost of products will increase and the economy will not grow.  It’s just common sense.

If you cut the corporate tax rate, big companies will come to the US.  The off shore companies will bring back their operations and there will be more jobs. The only way to get out of this terrible economic mess is to grow our way out.  And a repressive tax plan with temporary feel-good giveaways to “buy” votes while squeezing ailing businesses even further just makes no sense.