Post a Comment On: Bakersfield Observed

 Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield and House MajorityWhip, weighs in from Capitol Hill with his weekly column. In his words:


 "This past week, as the deadline passed for families and small businesses in our community to file their taxes and send their hard-earned dollars to Washington, we continue to see the need for our government to be smaller and more effective. With March unemployment in California at 11% – and at 15.9% here in Kern County – we know that we still need more private sector jobs and more economic growth. How do we do that? We should look at a comparable time in recent history and look at who the job creators are.

  "From the end of the last recession in 2001 to the beginning of this recession, jobs increased and the economy was strong, as was the housing market. Seven million of those jobs were created by small businesses – big corporations actually cut a million people from their payrolls. In fact, small businesses make up 99.7% of total private sector employment in America, and are responsible for 65% of all new job creation. These are America’s job creators. Instead of increasing taxes and burdening them with new unnecessary regulations, they should be able to keep more of what they’ve earned to invest and grow their businesses.

  "Unfortunately, because of the President’s and Congressional Democrats’ misguided tax-and-regulate policies, small businesses and entrepreneurs have been sapped of the capital and investment that they need to be able to expand and hire more employees. As House Majority Whip, I am continuing to focus on bringing relief to small businesses and hard-working families, and I was pleased that the House passed the Small Business Tax Cut Act (H.R. 9) this past week. This bill would allow small businesses to deduct 20% of their annual earnings so that they can keep more of their own money to invest in expansion and continue to put people back to work locally and across the country.

  "The Small Business Tax Cut Act is a step in the right direction towards pro-growth tax policies that broadens the tax base, gives investors more certainty, and keeps taxes lower for all Americans.  Instead of the Obama Administration and Congressional Democrats continuing to threaten to raise taxes, cause more uncertainty in the economy, and hold our job creators back, I am working with my colleagues to support these tax reforms to simplify our tax system so that our economy can prosper.

  "Our economy was built on the belief that with a good idea and the willingness to take a risk and work hard, one can have the opportunity to succeed. All of the statistics, the facts and the history of America show us that our economy is the strongest when small business is strong. Small businesses create the jobs in this country, so we must ensure they can remain competitive. The Small Business Tax Cut Act is another step as we continue to work to ease regulations and reject tax increases on American families and entrepreneurs.