Self Made: NASE's Blog

Kristie Arslan, Executive Director of the NASE, released the following statement after the U.S. House of Representatives passed an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts for the middle-class:

“This is the wrong time to raise taxes for small businesses. Over 23 million individual small business owners across the country are counting on Congress to stand up for the American middle-class by extending the Bush tax cuts,” said Arslan. “The time for political bickering is over – now is the time to provide relief to millions of American middle-class families who desperately need it during this economic downturn."

“Self-employed business owners contribute nearly a trillion dollars to our economy and they cannot afford a tax hike, which for the average small business will amount to more than $2,000 a year. This may be small change to a large corporation, but to a small business owner it could purchase health insurance, pay for equipment, or advertise their business. We support President Obama’s commitment to middle-class small business owners and call on Congress to work in a bipartisan way to extend these vital tax cuts.”

Quotes from President Obama on November 3, 2010:

“With respect to the [expiring Bush-era] tax cut issue, my goal is to make sure that we don’t have a huge spike in taxes for middle-class families. Not only would that be a terrible burden on families who are already going through tough times, it would be bad for our economy. It is very important that we’re not taking a whole bunch of money out of the system from people who are most likely to spend that money on goods, services, groceries, buying a new winter coat for the kids.”
…
“So my goal is to sit down with Speaker-elect Boehner and Mitch McConnell and Harry and Nancy sometime in the next few weeks and see where we can move forward in a way that, first of all, does no harm; that extends those tax cuts that are very important for middle-class families; also extends those provisions that are important to encourage businesses to invest, and provide businesses some certainty over the next year or two.”