Obama's Anti-Business Policies Are Our Economic Katrina

His gratuitous and overstated demonization of business is exactly the wrong approach

July 16, 2010 RSS Feed Print

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The chief economist of the NFIB, William Dunkelberg, put it clearly: Small business owners "do not trust the economic policies in place or proposed." He also said, "The U.S. economy faces hurricane force headwinds and the government is at the center of the storm, making an economic recovery very difficult."

Our economic Katrina, in short.

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Tags:: recession,; Congress,; housing market,; SEC,; economy,; Hurricane Katrina,; Barack Obama

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Explain the success of Facebook? Is this the model of business for the new millennium? If so, I will stick with my survivalist gear.

Nick of ID 12:26PM November 04, 2012

Of course the burden of rules are many... and some come with entire agencies to enforce them.
OSHA (and in California, businesses also have to deal with CalOSHA)
The EPA, etc.
Then there are major acts like the Social Security Act, Americans with Disabilities Act, The Family Leave Act, etc.
But these well known regulations are actually not nearly the bulk... the thousands of smaller and relatively unknown laws make up the bulk regulations, like sand on the beach.
Then there are the things that are so common that we forget that they are an expensive government imposition, for example:
The government mandates that companies become agents of the government, and act as tax collectors... keeping records and providing data, and collecting and transferring funds (as taxes from employees) directly to the government, and in turn provide information about the collection and the process to employees. (who hasn't received a W2 from an employer, mandated by government?) Entire departments are dedicated to this task in many companies... the office space, employees, data services, record storage etc. etc. all just to give the government what it wants with respect to EMPLOYEE tax collection, leaving aside the resources needed to comply with corporate taxation.
A simple example: the OMB estimated that environmental regulations costs went from 192 Million in 2001, to about 8 BILLION in 2008. (2001 dollars)... and the OMB admits that many environmental regulations were not included in this tally.
Dollars are of course only a proxy for "burden". The reality is that human thought, time, and action are required to address these laws... in other words, one has to actually DO something, and often times buy or create something (using resources) to comply with the laws. These activities are harder to measure than dollars, but one can keep them in mind when going over the dollar costs.
Of course I am only touching the tip of the iceberg here... but you get the idea.

Ryder of CA 2:08PM August 20, 2011

I have yet to see a list of all the horrible things the President wants business owners to do that forces you to move a business out of the US? Let me guess, he wants you to pay your bills and taxes in a timely manner (like private non-extremely wealthy citizens do) and not hide your cash in off shore accounts in the Caymans,Ireland etc? America is broke?
It only made 12 trillion last year.
Who could live on 12 trillion these days?
And those poor corporations. They're so oppressed. Why, things are so bad, they're sitting on two trillion dollars, after breaking all previous records for highest profits two years running. And taxes? Well, even though most corporations pay no taxes at all, we're still broke because of that tyrannical effective tax rate that brought in roughly 110 billion dollars on more than 1.5 TRILLION in profits.
Oh, and we only have 400 billionaires and just 5 million millionaires. Life's really tough for them, too, what with their 15% tax rates on capital gains and carried interest and their bank accounts in the Caymans. It must be awfully lonely for them these days, now that they're leaving the rest of us far behind, what with their control over more than 42% of all wealth in the country, and their share of the income pie going up to 25%.
Yep. America is broke. No way could we squeeze out another dime in taxes from billionaires, even though Americans paid just 9% of all of their income in taxes last year, and the Federal government took in just 14.8% of GDP . . . . and that counts corporate, personal, excise, gift, estate and payroll taxes.
See? Isn't it obvious that Americans are "taxed too much already"? Isn't it obvious that if Americans pay 9% of their income in taxes, there is no room left for even a penny more to be raised?Those wealthy Americans who control half the country's wealth don't pay income taxes. Their income is largely in the form of stock options and capital gain taxes (15% rate). Which they want eliminated! They pay a lower percentage than Repub voting dupes. The truth is, there were rich people during Eisenhower's day, during LBJ's day, during Nixon's day and during Clinton's day. Liberals aren't talking European style taxes, they're talking Clinton level taxes. You remember the 90s? 22 million jobs were added despite all that "confiscatory" tax....
Yep. We're flat busted.

roots of NY 10:12AM March 20, 2011

Obama's Anti-Business Policies Are Our Economic Katrina

His gratuitous and overstated demonization of business is exactly the wrong approach

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Obama's Anti-Business Policies Are Our Economic Katrina

His gratuitous and overstated demonization of business is exactly the wrong approach

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