by Rebecca Kahane, Intern,
National Women's Law Center

Helping small businesses is all the rage these days—and real help for real small businesses would be good news for women—and the economy. Between 1997 and 2002, the number of women-owned firms in the U.S. grew at nearly twice the rate of all U.S. firms (this is the latest data that’s available from the Census Bureau, but new data is scheduled to be released soon). Women-owned small businesses are expected to contribute significantly to future job growth. A recent study predicted that while women-owned businesses account for 16 percent of total employment today, they will be responsible for creating one-third of the 15.3 million new jobs anticipated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics by 2018.

But talking about helping small businesses is different from implementing policies that actually help small businesses. Too many policies justified on the grounds of helping small businesses do little or nothing to actually help them. As the daughter of small business owners, I find it exceedingly frustrating when policies that favor rich people and big business are justified using false claims of their effects on small business owners.

Take the Bush-era tax cuts for the nation's wealthiest people. The 2001-03 tax cuts for taxpayers in the highest tax brackets should be allowed to expire on schedule at the end of this year. And there's no need to exempt small business income from the increase in rates. Although in a 2004 speech, President Bush defended his tax cuts as giving "a little fuel...to the small business sector," in reality, renewing the Bush tax cuts for taxpayers in the top two brackets would benefit only a tiny fraction of small business owners.  This is because only the top 3 percent of tax filers with any business income are in the top two brackets. Renewing these tax cuts would have zero effect on 97 percent of taxpayers with business income while costing the country $825 billion over ten years.

Or, take the efforts to weaken the estate tax. Raising the exemption from the estate tax above the 2009 level or lowering the tax rate is hardly necessary for small businesses and farms. The Tax Policy Center found that only about 80 small business and farm estates nationwide owed the estate tax in 2009.

There are things we can do for women small business owners. To become "America's new job creation engine," entrepreneurs need greater access to credit, the development of a highly trained workforce, and the extension of stimulus provisions that would increase demand for their products. The Small Business Lending Fund Act (HR 5297), which passed the House before the July 4th recess, would create a $30 billion loan fund to be administered by the Treasury. This Act includes an emphasis on providing funding to financial institutions that serve minority and women-owned businesses as well as outreach to minority business owners. 

The time has come for lobbyists for the very wealthy to be upfront about whom their proposals are all about. They are about the rich and powerful, not the average Joe—or Jane.

• Tags:
• Employment
• Tax & Budget
• Rebecca Kahane

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