(The Center Square) – President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris delivered remarks from the White House Monday touting the administration’s work to help small businesses, but many of those same small businesses are criticizing Biden’s tax-and-spend policies.
“If the White House wants to help small businesses, they will immediately abandon their plans to raise small businesses’ taxes,” said Kevin Kuhlman, NFIB vice president of Federal Government Relations. “Small businesses continue to face economic headwinds and their expectations for better business conditions six months from now are hovering near historic lows.”
Monday’s event marked the beginning of Small Business Week. The White House event featured small business owners who praised Biden, the Affordable Care Act, and the Small Business Administration.
“Small businesses are the engine of our economy, the glue, the heart and soul of communities,” Biden said, emphasizing the COVID-era Paycheck Protection Program to help the economy recover from the pandemic.
The White House also pointed to pandemic-era assistance programs, the bipartisan infrastructure bill, and the CHIPS and Science act, which is aimed at promoting domestic manufacturing.
“We are making the whole economy stronger for years to come,” Biden said.
Small businesses critical of Biden’s work point to the president’s recently proposed budget, which included several proposed tax increases as well as federal debt spending, which fuels inflation.
As The Center Square previously reported, the president’s proposed budget includes several proposed tax hikes, including an increase of the top marginal income tax rate to 39.6%, a minimum 25% tax on anyone with more than $100 million, a hike of the corporate tax rate from 21% to 28%, a billionaire’s tax, and more.
“President Biden’s tax increases will hit small to mid-size businesses,” Karen Kerrigan, SBE Council president and CEO, said in a statement. “The sizable increases take aim at many struggling firms as they work to recover, compete, and operate during an unstable and inflationary period.”
Inflation has remained a persistent issue during Biden’s tenure, with small businesses struggling to handle the rising costs of supplies.
“The new tax hikes proposed in the White House’s FY 2024 budget request would hurt Main Street’s ability to recover, grow, and create jobs,” Kuhlman said. “The White House should instead focus on promoting economic growth and providing certainty, such as permanently extending the Small Business Deduction.”
NFIB recently launched a paid ad campaign against the proposed tax increases and has gathered thousands of small business owners’ signatures in a petition against them.
“The White House is claiming they are ‘closing a loophole’ by subjecting small business income to a new 5% tax, but that claim is false and misleading,” Kuhlman said. “Small businesses are not a tax loophole and ask their elected officials to reject the proposed tax hikes.”
