From the office of House Republican Leader John Boehner:
Democrats are singing their same old tune, “tax the rich” to pay for their government takeover of health care. But small business owners pay their businesses’ taxes on their individual tax returns (as opposed to the corporate income tax). So the Democrats’ bill places a new and stifling tax – up to an additional 5.4 percent – on the engine of economic growth in our economy: small businesses. In a deep recession and nearing double-digit unemployment, that’s the last thing our country needs.
As reported in The Detroit Free Press, among others, House Republicans made clear that a small business tax will cost jobs and hurt our economy:
“‘During a deep economic recession, it is criminal malpractice for Democrats to push a government takeover of health care and a new small-business tax that will destroy more American jobs,’ House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, said in a statement.”
The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) commissioned a survey of small business owners with total household income likely in excess of $250,000 and found that the more employees a firm had the more likely it was to be affected. In other words, the Democratic small business tax doesn’t hit every small business, it targets those with the most employees. That is bad news for the 33.5 million workers – 28 percent of the private-sector workforce - employed by small businesses with 20 – 299 employees. These employers added more than 2 million jobs between 2001 to 2006; jobs directly threatened by this tax hike.