Warren writes: "Washington politicians line up 10-deep to claim they support small businesses, but they avoid talking about a harsh reality: The system is rigged against small business."
Democratic candidate for the Massachusetts Senate Elizabeth Warren. (photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images)
Stop Rigging System Against Small Business
06 August 12
meant what I said.
I stood before a group of voters in Massachusetts last year and talked about what it would take to move forward as a nation. I laid out how we all needed to invest in our country, to build a strong foundation for our families today and make sure the next kid with the great idea has the chance to succeed.
But too often that kid can't succeed because the system is rigged against him.
Small-business owners bust their tails every day. They're the first ones in and the last to leave, six and often seven days a week. That's how my Aunt Alice ran her small restaurant, where I worked as a kid. My brother and my daughter both started small businesses. And I've visited and talked with small-business owners across Massachusetts. From the insurance agency in Brockton to the coffee shop in Greenfield and the manufacturing plant in Lawrence - all started and run by people with good ideas and a determination to succeed.
I believe in small businesses. They're the heart and soul of our economy. They create jobs and opportunities for the future.
Washington politicians line up 10-deep to claim they support small businesses, but they avoid talking about a harsh reality: The system is rigged against small business. These owners can't afford armies of lobbyists in D.C., but the big corporations can. It's those armies of lobbyists that create the loopholes and special breaks that let big corporations off the hook for paying taxes. While small businesses are left to pay the bills.
We've got to close those loopholes and end the special breaks - so small businesses have a level playing field and a fair chance to succeed.
When small businesses grow and flourish, we should applaud their success, and the companies should benefit from their hard work and clever ideas. But here's my point: If a business makes it big, the reward shouldn't be the ability to rig the system to stop the next guy.
If a business takes its profits to the Cayman Islands, ships its jobs overseas or finds a loophole to avoid paying its fair share of taxes, then that business now has a leg up over every small business and start up that can't take advantage of those loopholes. Sometimes the big can get bigger not because they are better but because they can work the system better. That's bad for every small business in America.
Asked recently about news that Mitt Romney had money in offshore tax havens, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said, "It's really American to avoid paying taxes, legally.... It's a game we play. ... I see nothing wrong with playing the game because we set it up to be a game."
Graham is right about one thing - it's a game for some. It's a rigged game that benefits big corporations and billionaires who can deploy armies of lobbyists and lawyers to create those tax loopholes and then exploit them.
The game is rigged to work for profitable oil companies, who made $137 billion in profits last year - and still collected billions of dollars' worth of government subsidies. The game is rigged to work for big multinational corporations, which get tax breaks to ship U.S. jobs overseas and park investments abroad. The game is rigged to work for hedge fund managers and billionaires, who pay lower tax rates than their secretaries. Meanwhile, their Republican allies are making sure the rules stay rigged in their favor.
But for the tens of millions of working families and small businesses left holding the bag - it's not a game. For the small businesses that can't spend millions of dollars to hire lobbyists who get them special deals or hire armies of lawyers to move their money overseas or restructure their operations to take advantage of every loophole, it isn't a game.
Washington is rigged to work against their interests with real-life consequences. They compete against the big companies, working hard to hold on to the American dream of providing a better life for their kids and grandkids. They see how the game is rigged.
We face a real choice in this country between the Republicans' "I've got mine," approach and the belief that, as a nation, we reward success and hard work - keeping the playing field level so that everyone with a good idea, a dream of making it big and plenty of determination has a chance to make it.
We must be committed to the American dream, the approach that made us the most prosperous and strongest country in the world and built a future of opportunity for our children and grandchildren.
The choice is ours.
Elizabeth Warren is running as a Democrat for the Senate in Massachusetts, against Republican Sen. Scott Brown. She served as chairwoman of the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP and as assistant to the president and special adviser to the treasury secretary for the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau.
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Where we need her is where she CAN'T be stilled.
She belongs where everyone can hear her voice. She belongs where she can point out that the small guy, who is being led around by a ring in his nose by those who get the tax breaks, those that ship the jobs away, and those that send their investments somewhere else.
She belongs in the Cabinet where she can help steer the country toward the level playing field that America so desperately needs.
America needs somebody like her with her brand of good sense – and we need it now!
Here is the real story! Lindsey Graham is so arrogant, has so much disdain for America, the Senate, and the American people, that he has spilled the beans for all to see and hear. He thinks the whole thing is a GAME! He thinks that boys will be boys and that the Big Boys are just playing like Big Boys do.
He has admitted, to all who care to listen, that 'we' (meaning the current crop of game masters) have set the game up like a well managed casino, where the 'house' always wins, because they make the 'rules.' The rest of us are the 'suckers born every day.'
This quote should be in every ad, in every race where a Republican is running for office. That's all that is needed...just the quote, nothing more. Let it go viral on all the social media. Once it gets going, it's free ad space from then to the finish line.
The Golden Egg is cracked, and the GOP goose is dead!
Talk about letting the cat out of the bag...this is big!!
"Oops" is all that Graham can muster to say. Boy, is he in trouble with the home office.
CONGRATULATIONS TO SENATOR ELIZABETH WARREN ON HER UPCOMING LANDSLIDE ELECTION!
What if everybody tried to live off of gambling income and nobody was left to do the real work?
Too many moderate-sized businesses fit into what most people would consider the small category.
SBA defines a small business concern as one that is independently owned and operated, is organized for profit, and is not dominant in its field. Depending on the industry, size standard eligibility is based on the average number of employees for the preceding twelve months or on sales volume averaged over a three-year period.
•Manufacturing: Maximum number of employees may range from 500 to 1500, depending on the type of product manufactured;
• Wholesaling: Maximum number of employees may range from 100 to 500 depending on the particular product being provided;
• Services: Annual receipts may not exceed $2.5 to $21.5 million, depending on the particular service being provided;
• Retailing: Annual receipts may not exceed $5.0 to $21.0 million, depending on the particular product being provided;
• General and Heavy Construction: General construction annual receipts may not exceed $13.5 to $17 million, depending on the type of construction;
• Special Trade Construction: Annual receipts may not exceed $7 million; and
• Agriculture: Annual receipts may not exceed $0.5 to $9.0 million, depending on the agricultural product.
Why not try something different next time and do some of your own thinking instead of being a GOP parrot pushing their odious propaganda?
It says a lot (volumes and volumes) not only about our thoroughly broken system, but about how ethically bankrupt our politicians are. The two go hand in hand, feeding each other.
Republicans, however, stand head and shoulders above the Democrats when it comes to their respective world views. Of course, I'm being thoroughly ironic here. Could they make it anymore clearer what they stand for and who they support? Their allegiance and loyalty is with the corporations and the super rich. How rare, at this time (or any time), to have someone like Elizabeth Warren speaking up for the American people. We desperately need others like her to fight for us, to stand with us. It's not just America that's at risk, it's the entire planet because Republican policies are simply destructive.
Small businesses shoulder more of the tax burden than these monopolistic monsters and their owners work harder for less than any CEO, don't have off-shore tax havens and have to LOVE what they do.
They also BUILD community rather than drag it down.
Thanks Ms. Warren -I'd contribute to y'r campaign if I wasn't so strapped in these times of bare survival.
When you think about Romney, you realize how thoroughly bankrupt the Republican Party is... that THIS is their candidate? An ignoble man who would only double down on the damage and the policies of the GOP? That's the best man they could field?The GOP today is like a cancerous tumor on the body politic and Romney is just as diseased.
short list of 'small businesses':
Bechtel
Koch Industries
Chicago Tribune
Price/Waterhouse/Coopers
Ferrell Gas
KKR
Coorstech
In 2007 the IRS had 1.5 million small business clients earning over $250k/yr., who, incidentally have their own lobbying firm, S Corp
These folks report their company's earnings on their personal income tax filings. The biggest earn in the billions.
The people Warren refers to are the true mom-and -pop companies (97%) who make less than $250k/yr.
You will hear the GOP whiniing about protecting 'small businesses' and they are talking about the top 3%.
When the Bush Tax cuts expire, we should protect the 97%
What's your take on the substance of her statement, and the comments so far? Has your keen eye picked up anything interesting?
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