August 2010

Small businesses: Measuring their power and their problems

From The Washington Post.

He may be locked in combat with Wall Street and the Business Roundtable, but President Obama spoke nostalgically last week about the virtues of small business.

"Helping small businesses, cutting taxes, making credit available," Obama said Wednesday after meeting business owners at the Tastee Sub Shop in Edison, N.J. "This is as American as apple pie. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. They are central to our identity as a nation. They are going to lead this recovery."

With unemployment stuck at 9.5 percent and job growth shaky, supporting "small business" has become a Rorschach test for both parties.

The president and congressional Democrats are racing to show what government can do. A bill pending in Congress would create a $30 billion small-business lending fund, add new tax breaks and expand loan guarantees from the Small Business Administration.

Republicans invoke small business to campaign against what they don't want government to do: expand health care, tighten financial regulations or raise taxes on the rich.

So what is the economic power of small business in America?

Find out.