Issue Position: Small Business

Issue Position

Issue Position: Small Business

Congress needs to spend more time and effort trying to help small business owners. America's small businesses employ 50 percent of America's private workforce. They represent the vast majority of America's employers. If we want to boost our economy, let's spend more time helping small business people succeed here at home and less time creating tax loopholes and corporate welfare.

Americans are entrepreneurial in spirit. Let's reinforce that spirit by expanding loans and funds available for small businesses with five or fewer employees and revenues under $500,000. As your Representative, I voted to cut bureaucratic red tape and make 7(a) loans more economical for small businesses. Let's continue these efforts to help entrepreneurs grow and expand. We should increase the number of federal contracts awarded to small businesses. That's why I supported the Small Business in Fairness Contracting Act, which leveled the playing field and opened the $380 billion federal marketplace to small businesses everywhere.

Most small business owners want to do the right thing when it comes to providing health care for their employees. A lot of them take pride in providing a secure workplace. But, as anyone with a small business can tell you, it costs an arm and a leg to cover employees. Health care costs generally rose about 15 percent last year for small businesses and often as high as 25 percent. We need to cut health care costs for small businesses. I support refundable tax credits for up to 50 percent of the cost of coverage. This is good for the employer and good for the worker. We also need to get rid of much of the red tape and paperwork associated with business providing health care to their employees. With the technology we have now, there is absolutely no reason to still tie ourselves to so much paperwork and unnecessary reporting and forms. It cuts productivity and increases the cost of health care for small businesses.

While in Congress, I have supported targeted tax cuts for small business owners and their families totaling $86 billion over five years and $213 billion over ten years. In early 2007, when I was first sworn in to represent TX-22, I worked hard to convince others in Congress to join me in supporting nearly $5 billion in small business tax relief. It is important to reduce the unfair tax burden on small and family-owned businesses that offer health insurance to its employees and make the estate tax laws fair.

As a former small business owner, I know first-hand how hard it is to "make a payroll." That's why I will make issues facing small business my business in Congress.

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