NJ SMALL BUSINESS OWNERS ASK SPEAKER BOEHNER “WHERE ARE THE JOBS?”
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Respond to Speaker Boehner’s comments reported today in The Hill 11/28/12: “We’re not going to grow the economy if we raise tax rates on the top two rates,” the Speaker added. “It’ll hurt small businesses. It’ll hurt our economy. That’s why it’s not the right approach.”
NEW JERSEY –New Jersey Small Business owners today criticized Speaker Boehner’s comments that raising taxes on the wealthiest 2% of Americans would hurt America’s economy and hurt America’s small businesses. To the contrary, 97% of small businesses would be unaffected by allowing the Bush-era tax cuts to expire for the wealthiest 2% of Americans. Most of New Jersey’s small businesses would benefit from Congress doing the right thing – extending the tax cuts for the middle-class and allowing the Bush tax cuts to expire for the wealthiest 2%.
“As a small business owner on the Jersey Shore, what I need the most right now is customers coming in-– not more tax cuts for the rich. I’m not benefiting from the Bush tax cuts for take-home income above $250,000. I’m not in that tax bracket and neither are the other small business owners I know,” said Lorna Jensen, who owns Stained Glass Gallery in Toms River. Jensen also questioned the effect of the tax cuts on the economy, “If this tax cut for the top two percent helped create jobs, we should be swimming in jobs by now. As it is we have had 12 years of cuts – but where are the jobs?”
“I am tired of politicians like Speaker Boehner using small businesses in order to cut tax for the wealthiest Americans and tax breaks for corporations. These economic policies have failed to help small businesses in the past, and they won’t help us now,” said Carissa Borraggine, owner of Harvest Table in Newark
In February 2012 Main Street Alliance, a national organization of Small Businesses released a surveyshowing that a majority of small business owners believe that the Bush-era tax cuts for the richest 2% should end on schedule. New Jersey’s small businesses need more customers and investments in infrastructure that would allow them to grow their businesses, not more give-aways to the super-rich.
NJ Main Street Alliance is a network of 1200 small businesses across New Jersey and a project of New Jersey Citizen Action.
