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North Carolina Business Event 9/23/92 [OA 7581] [2]
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North Carolina Business Event 9/23/92 [OA 7581] [2]
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North Carolina Business Event 9/23/92 [OA 7581] [2]
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1ST STORY of Level 1 printed in FULL format.
Copyright 1992 The Washington Post
The Washington Post
September 13, 1992, Sunday, Final Edition
SECTION: FINANCIAL; PAGE H1
LENGTH: 1811 words
HEADLINE: Looking To Lighten A Load;
Clinton Sounds a Lot Like Bush on Most Key Issues Facing Small Business
SERIES: Occasional
BYLINE: Frank Swoboda, Washington Post Staff Writer
BODY:
Standing in front of Goolrick's Pharmacy during a recent campaign swing
through Fredericksburg, Va., President Bush told a crowd of supporters that few
issues divided him and Democratic presidential nominee Bill Clinton quite like
their approaches to small business.
"Our differences couldn't be sharper," Bush told the audience gathered
outside the 123-year-old pharmacy. "I see small business as the backbone of the
American economy. He sees a golden-egg-laying goose that ought to pay more in
taxes."
But as the candidates began to offer more specifics of their programs last
week, they spelled out remarkably similar policies to support a segment of the
business community that has been one of the few areas to provide job growth in
recent years.
In many ways, Clinton's policies toward small business tend to underscore the
differences between him and many congressional Democrats more than between him
and Bush. Emerging Clinton economic policies reflect his years as the governor
of a small Southern state and his chairmanship of the Democratic Leadership
Council, long viewed as the anchor of the conservative wing of the party.
Even in the highly charged area of health care, where the two men clash over
their fundamental philosophies on the issue of mandatory insurance for all
workers, the Clinton and Bush programs being considered could have come out of
the same policy shop. And there are remarkable similarities between the two on a
whole range of small business issues, from tax policy to the need to reduce the
burden of federal regulations.
Both favor reducing the capital gains tax, restoring the investment tax
credit and giving the president a line item veto over the congressional budget.
Generally speaking, both favor a minimalist role for government in defining the
relationship between small business employers and their employees.
"They aren't really that far apart," said David Voight, director of the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce's small business center, a fact that Voight said
doesn't come as much of a surprise considering Clinton's background as a
Southern Democrat. "Where there are differences, I suspect they're basically
party differences," rather than differences in personal philosophy, he said.
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The Washington Post, September 13, 1992
An example of a party position is Clinton's early support for legislation to
ban companies from permanently replacing striking workers. Although he comes
from a right-to-work state, support of the striker replacement bill was seen as
necessary to help ease the concerns of organized labor about what they
considered his conservative economic views flowing from his involvement in the
Democratic Leadership Council.
Another is his support for legislation passed by Congress last week requiring
businesses to provide unpaid leave for parents who need to take time off for the
birth of a child or medical emergencies. But the bill exempts employers with
fewer than 50 employees, an exclusion that would leave 95 percent of all
businesses uncovered.
The policy similarities of the two candidates are perhaps best underscored by
the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), the Washington-based
trade association representing primarily small businesses with fewer than 10
employees. A chart in the federation's magazine, giving a rundown on issues of
most concern to NFIB members, shows the two candidates in basic agreement on a
majority of issues on the list.
The notable exceptions are health insurance, striker replacement and parental
leave. Clinton also diverges from Bush by opposing a business-backed bill to
place a ceiling on the damages that can be awarded to plaintiffs who accuse
businesses of violating their civil rights or injuring them through defects in
their products.
Clinton's Market Reliance
Health care may best illustrate Clinton's differences with his own party,
particularly his party in Congress.
Bush, who opposes requiring employers to provide health insurance coverage,
has proposed creating regional "health insurance networks" that would write
umbrella policies for groups of small businesses. Bush spokesmen say this would
enable small operators to get the same cost benefits as the large group policies
available to bigger businesses.
Most of the nearly 35 million to 40 million people without health care are in
families where workers are employed by small businesses.
The Republican plan would require state governments to develop packages of
basic benefits that would guarantee that similar businesses, buying similar
insurance policies, pay comparable premiums. "No longer will small employers
find that one sick employee or one employee with a sick child can make insurance
unaffordable," the Bush campaign said in a background paper on its
health-care-reform plan.
To give the insurance industry an incentive to go along with the proposal,
Bush would exempt insurance sold through the health networks from what his
campaign refers to as "costly state-imposed mandates and excessive state premium
taxes.
=
The Clinton plan now under consideration is almost identical, with one key
difference. The Arkansas governor would require that every business, regardless
of size, provide health insurance coverage for its employees. It would keep
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The Washington Post, September 13, 1992
the employer as the major provider of health insurance and would do 50 by
preserving the nation's private health insurance system, according to campaign
officials.
Unlike the so-called "pay or play" health insurance program proposed by
Democratic leaders in Congress, the Clinton plan appears to represent a much
more traditional, even Republican-style, free-enterprise approach to the health
insurance issue.
Like Bush, Clinton would rely on what a campaign aide calls "small business
marketing reform,' allowing smaller operators to form insurance pools set up
under state charters. Insurance companies would not be allowed to raise premiums
or cancel policies if an employee or an employee's dependent had a major
illness.
Unlike the Democratic congressional plan, Clinton's proposal would not
involve a payroll tax or a new federal government apparatus to administer the
health care plan. "We're sticking with the private-public partnership," said a
Clinton campaign official. "We have no payroll tax."
"We don't want to create a massive new public bureaucracy," said a Clinton
campaign official. "We want to maintain the private system. The majority of the
uninsured are people who work. We want to provide [health insurance] assistance
in such a way that jobs and businesses are not put at risk."
Clinton also is counting a major cost-containment effort to cap medical costs
and the elimination of waste and inefficiencies as part of his plan.
Both Bush and Clinton would provide a 100 percent health insurance premium
reduction for sole proprietor businesses, partnerships and so-called S
corporations, which are set up by proprietors with 10 or fewer shareholders. And
both favor preempting state laws that require insurance companies to cover
specific health care services.
Although the business community in general rejects the idea of any kind of
government-mandated benefits, the Chamber of Commerce's Voight said he
believes that "the small business community may be more receptive to a fairly
radical change in the [health insurance] system. It may be more willing to take
a risk in the direction of a mandated system."
Capital Gains Cuts The free-enterprise approach of the two candidates is not
restricted to the health insurance issue, as their support of cuts in the
capital gains tax for business suggests. Such a cut has been repeatedly rejected
by a majority of congressional Democrats. The Clinton plan is substantially
different from the Bush proposal in that it would restrict the cuts to new
business investments, but it does recognize the tax cut as a factor in creating
jobs.
Bush and Clinton both support restoration of the investment tax credit and a
proposal to reduce Social Security taxes for troubled businesses and their
employees.
"The philosophy of Governor Clinton has made it very clear his economic plan
is devoted to job creation and he's not going to take actions to undermine the
ability of small businesses to create jobs," said a campaign aide.
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The Washington Post, September 13, 1992
As an example, the aide pointed to the fact that Clinton would exempt any
business with fewer than 50 employees from his proposal to impose a 1.5 percent
surcharge on businesses that do not provide training programs for their
employees.
Bush, in a speech last week to the Detroit Economic Club outlining his
economic program, preached much the same message. "Small business is the
backbone of a growing economy," the president said.
Small businesses account for more than 99 percent of all businesses in the
United States, according to the Small Business Administration (SBA). But that
number is deceiving. Of the nation's approximately 20 million businesses, only
6.2 million have more than one employee. The rest are sole proprietorships in
which the owner is the only employee, such as the computer consultant working at
home or the one-person bicycle repair shop.
From 1988 through 1990, according to the SBA, businesses with fewer than 20
employees created more than 4 million jobs, the entire net increase in the
nation's job growth for that period in the private, nonfarm sector. From 1984 to
1988, the SBA estimates, all small businesses those with fewer than 500
employees -- accounted for 5.4 million of 11.1 million net new jobs created. Of
those, 3.1 million net new jobs were created by businesses with fewer than 20
employees.
Behind those numbers is a remarkable volatility, according to Julie Weeks,
deputy chief counsel for statistics and research at the SBA. The birth and death
rates of small businesses show almost as many small businesses failing as being
born. As a general rule, Weeks said, for every four new jobs created, three are
lost in the small business community.
Weeks said that despite the disproportionate gain in net jobs by the smallest
businesses in the last few years, there was nothing extraordinary in the pattern
of small business births and deaths during that period. She said the change
occurred largely because of the net loss of jobs in all other segments of the
business community.
But a new survey commissioned by Arthur Andersen & Co., the accounting firm,
and National Small Business United, a Washington-based small business advocacy
group, indicates that the stagnant economy may now be catching up with small
businesses. The survey estimates that there will be no net growth in employment
in 1991-92 as small operators wait for an improvement in the economy.
"I think the outlook is cautious," said H. Rick Fumo, managing director of
Arthur Andersen's Enterprise Group. "These are people who tend to be very
optimistic. Right now, they are very cautious."
GRAPHIC: CHART, BENEFITS AND SMALL BUSINESS (DATA FROM CHART WAS UNAVAILABLE.),
JOHN ANDERSON; ILLUSTRATION, RANDY JONES FOR TWP
TYPE: NATIONAL NEWS
SUBJECT: PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES; PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS; POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS;
POLITICAL ISSUES AND PHILOSOPHY; TAX SYSTEM; ECONOMIC POLICY; SMALL BUSINESS;
HEALTH INSURANCE; FRINGE BENEFITS; EMPLOYEES
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The Washington Post, September 13, 1992
NAMED-PERSONS: GEORGE BUSH; BILL CLINTON
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LEVEL 1 - 154 OF 194 STORIES
PAGE 20
Copyright 1992 The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.
Daily Report For Executives
June 23, 1992, Tuesday
1992 DER 121 d75
ECTION: TAXATION, BUDGET AND ACCOUNTING TEXT; 121.
ENGTH: 6066 words
EADLINE:
"A
NATIONAL
BODY: ILL CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC ECONOMIC PRESIDENTIAL STRATEGY CONTENDER, FOR AMERICA, JUNE ISSUED 21, 1992 BY ARKANSAS (TEXT)
GOV.
MMARY
cher, oviding During the opportunity, the forgotten 1980s, our middle taking government responsibility, betrayed the rewarding values work. that make America great:
les em little -- took in it return. on the Washington chin. class They failed paid -- the higher to people put taxes people who to work first. a government hard While and play the that by rich gave the got
Our No wonder our nation has compiled its worst economic record in fifty
erful political interests system and an isn't entrenched working bureaucracy. either. Washington Americans is are dominated tired of by years. blame.
They are ready for a leader willing to take responsibility.
My ion national each year economic for the strategy next four puts people first by investing more than $ 50
e ete investments in the global will economy. create millions They include: years of high-wage while cutting jobs the and deficit help America in half.
nse stment, - Putting to a and peacetime America opening to economy, up work world by revitalizing markets. rebuilding our our country, cities, encouraging converting from private a
Rewarding
work
by
ts. are as we know it, providing providing family tax fairness leave and to cracking working families, down on deadbeat ending
ving Supporting to schools, lifetime training learning high school by bringing parents and children together,
rs. e borrow money to go to college and graduates, serve our offering nation, every and retraining American the
ing Providing paperwork, quality, phasing affordable in universal health care by radically controlling
ing down on
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Daily Report For Executives, June 23, 1992
save us several dollars for every one we spend Q Head Start, the Women, Infants
and Children (WIC) program, and other critical initiatives recommended by the
National Commission on Children.
-- Dramatically improve K-12 education. We will overhaul America's public
schools to insure that every child has a chance for a world-class education. We
will establish tough standards and a national examination system in core
subjects like math and science, level the playing field for disadvantaged
students, and reduce class sizes. We will give every parent the right to choose
the public school his or her child attends, as we have done in Arkansas. In
return, we will demand that parents work with their children to keep them in
school, off drugs and headed toward graduation.
-- Safe Schools Initiative. We will provide funds for violence-ridden schools
to hire security personnel and purchase metal detectors. We will help cities and
states use community policing to put more police officers on the streets in
high- crime areas where schools are located.
- - Youth Opportunity Corps. To help teenagers who drop out of school, we will
help communities open centers that give dropouts a second chance. Teenagers will
be matched with adults who care about them, and given a chance to develop
self-discipline and skills.
- - National Apprenticeship Program. As President, I will bring business and
education leaders together to develop a national apprenticeship system that
offers non-college bound students training in a valuable skill, with the promise
of a good job when they graduate.
-- National Service Trust Fund. To give every American the right to borrow
money for college, we will scrap the existing student loan program and establish
a National Service Trust Fund. Those who borrow from the fund will be able to
choose how to repay the balance: either as a small percentage of their earnings
over time, or by serving their communities for one or two years doing work their
country needs as teachers, law enforcement officers, health care workers, or
peer counselors helping kids stay off drugs and in school.
- - Worker retraining. We will require every employer to spend 1.5 percent of
payroll for continuing education and training, and make them provide the
training to all workers, not just executives. Workers will be able to choose
1.5
advanced skills training, the chance to earn a high school diploma, or the
opportunity to learn to read. And we will streamline existing programs by
combining the confusing array of publicly-funded training schemes.
QUALITY, AFFORDABLE HEALTH CARE FOR ALL
The American health care system costs too much and does not work. Instead of
putting people first, the government in Washington has favored the insurance
companies, drug manufacturers, and health care bureaucracies. We cannot build
the economy of tomorrow until we guarantee every American the right to quality,
affordable health care.
Washington has ignored the needs of middle-class families and let health care
costs soar out of control. American drug companies have raised their prices
times the inflation to hav
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VE
National Republican Congressional Committee
To:
Carol
From: Richard Billmire (202) 479-7070 60 Ext
Date: 9/27/92 Total # of Pages: 12
Comments:
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in a New Hampshire debate of 01/31/92, Clinton reviewed his health care
proposals. "We ought to take on the insurance companies and have insurance
reform, but we ought to do with an employer-based system with a government
lternative for small business and people with no insurance." He then agreed
with Jim Lehrer, a moderator of the event, that this was a "kind of the play or
ay."
'I'm telling you folks, this country cannot be turned around unless you give us
chance to give the American people a plan to control health care costs and
provide basic health care to all Americans. If you vote for it, we'll do it,
ve'll do it for you. What he really meant, we will really do it to you.
9/09/92 CNN/ Jeff Levine, Experts Say Candidates Are Lacking on Health Care
Issue.
J.S.A. Today Editorial Meeting with Governor Bill Clinton 08/12/92
'Let me ask you how you would finance your own program? The Bush
dministration says that you would impose a payroll tax. Is there a payroll
tax fitting in your plan and if not, how are you planning to finance this?"
First of all, what I plan to do--let me just say what I plan to do first is, I
lon't plan to lead with the tax
You allow small businesses to buy into
big pools. A lot of those people would then begin to buy the insurance,
because the unit cost will go down. And ultimately what you're going to have
to do is to say that if people don't do that, then they buy into a government
rogram. And you can call it payroll tax or whatever other tax
=
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Thursday, August 13, 1992
USA Today Editoral Meeting: Bill Clinton, Presidential Candidate
Transcript ID: 860781 (1456 lines)
"USA TODAY" EDITORS MEET WITH
GOVERNOR BILL CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 1992
Q
Well, welcome. We're glad you're here. It's nice to
have you here. We appreciate your taking time out of your busy day
to be here.
GOV. CLINTON: Thank you.
Q
You've often said that you're a man of many ideas and
where there's a problem you'll find solutions. And, in fact, you
have many fresh ideas for some of the different problems the country
faces.
But your critics back home call you Slick Willie and they say
that you've never been able to figure out -- they've never been able
to figure out what's really most important to you.
What is most important and what are the three most important
things you'd like to accomplish in the presidency?
GOV. CLINTON: The most important thing to me is to see an
America in which every person has a chance to live up to the fullest
of his or her God-given capacities an America which is living up
to its historic destiny as a place of boundless opportunity and a
beacon of hope and freedom.
In order to make that kind of America, this country has to
change and the three most important things that I would do as
president to change that:
First - try to change our economic philosophy away from
trickle-down economics toward an investment philosophy -- both
public and private investment to make American competitive again.
Second -- to address the enormous problem of spiraling health
care costs and the crisis in health care in America. To provide a
basic system of affordable health care to all Americans without
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In California, you'd have 20 percent of the health insurance
companies in California basically opted out of insuring against risk
and they're still in the management of health care. So a lot of
those companies out there have seen the future and they're moving
that way. So I think we ought to provide that option, but I don't
think it's practical at this stage to require that to be done
nationwide.
#
Q Let me ask you how you would finance your own program? The
Bush Administration says that you would impose a payroll tax. Is
there a payroll tax fitting in your plan and if not, how are you
planning to finance this?
GOV. CLINTON: First of all, what I plan to do -- let me just
say what I plan to do first is, I don't plan to lead with the tax.
What I want to have first, we're going to have to implement this
over a period of a few years and the difference between my plan and
say the senate Democratic plan, which is straight payor plan, is
that I want to implement the cost saving programs first. I want to
have -- because I believe that will get us very close to universal
coverage before we have a payroll tax. That is, I think it will get
you close to what Hawaii has done, if you look at the Hawaii system.
You go to community rate, you give real incentives for people to be
in broad based health networks, big HMOs, where there's still a fair
amount of choice for the doctors and providers, if you take some of
the money that
goes through Medicare and Medicaid and put community clinics out
there so you stop rationing health care on the front end by
providing more primary and preventive health care, if you have
alternatives to try to cut the cost of medical liabilities --
alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, national practice
guidelines for doctors - if you do all the things I have
recommended, then I think what you'll see is immediately, I mean,
once you get this in, a lot of people who are now paying for health
insurance will find their costs go down.
You allow small businesses to buy into big pools. A lot of
those people would then begin to buy the insurance, because the unit
cost will go down. And ultimately what you're going to have to do
is to say that if people don't do that. then they buy into a
government program. And you can call it a payroll tax or whatever
other tax, but ultimately, if they are given a government program to
have to pay for that.
buy into if the private sector doesn't provide it, then they will
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- Friday, January 31, 1992
Public Television Democratic Presidential Debate (Part I)
Transcript ID: 792671 (1957 lines)
This is a partial transcript, more to follow
DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATES DEBATE
SPONSORED BY PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE
MODERATED BY: ROBIN MACNEIL AND JIM LEHRER
FEATURING:
FORMER SENATOR PAUL TSONGAS, D-MA
FORMER GOV. JERRY BROWN, D-CA
GOV. BILL CLINTON, D-AR
SEN. TOM HARKIN, D-IA
SEN. BOB KERREY, D-NE
FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1992
ROBERT MACNEIL: Tonight the five major candidates for the Democratic
Party's presidential nomination debate the key economic issues in the 1992 race for the
White House.
Good evening.
I'm Robert MacNeil.
JIM LEHRER:
And I'm Jim Lehrer.
MR.
MACNEIL: Welcome to the second of seven candidate debates coordinated
through a nonpartisan group called Debates '92. With us tonight, named in
alphabetical order, are the five major Democratic presidential candidates: Former
California Governor Jerry Brown; Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas; Senator Tom
Massachusetts. Harkin of Iowa; Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska; and former Senator Paul Tsongas of
MR. LEHRER: The emphasis tonight will be on the economy and other domestic
issues. There are no formal ground rules other than those of basic fairness and civility.
We have asked the candidates only to keep their answers as brief as possible in the
interest of fairness. We will watch the clock to make sure each has an equal chance to
be heard over the course of the next two hours. There will be no formal opening or
closing statements. Seat selection around this table and the order for the first question
were determined by lot. Robin?
MR. MACNEIL:
Gentlemen, President Bush told us the other night how he sees
the state of this Union.
I'm going to ask you how you see it tonight. Senator Tsongas.
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these ideas of putting more money in the health care system simply are not going to
work.
We have got to say to the American people we have an obligation to budget all of our
health care expenditures and pay for it. Yes, I'm prepared to say to the American
people that, yes, we will pay for it with taxes, but the average taxpayer out there will
pay less. Now, Tom and I with our big fat salaries will pay a little bit more 'cause I
believe in progressive taxes, but for an average American worker under $40,000 a
year, they'll pay $500 less, and for somebody making $25,000 a year, they'll pay
$1200 less. The American people should not be fooled with this tax argument. Fact
is, we can spend less. Germany spends less. Canada spends less, and they spend less,
Jim, because their politicians are required to be accountable on the overall cost, and we
are not.
MR.
LEHRER: Governor Clinton, which - which one of these two men do you
agree with?
GOV. CLINTON: Well, again, I have a little bit different perspective, you
know, because I've been paying all these health care budgets as governor for so many
years, and I just finished a year as the head of the governor's projects on health care.
It's a very complex issue. I must have talked to hundreds, literally hundreds of people
before I put out a position paper on it. But let me say that, first, every one of them is
better than what George Bush says. I don't agree -
MR. BROWN: Pick -- which one do you like? I mean you can't say you like
them all.
GOV. CLINTON: Well, I like mine. I like mine, but I mean I think --
MR, BROWN: What is yours?
GOV. CLINTON: I believe that we ought to go - like I agree with Senator
Tsongas. We ought to take on the insurance companies and have insurance reform, but
we ought to do with an employer-based system with a government alternative for small
business and people with no insurance. I agree, however --
MR. LEHRER: That's the kind of the play or pay.
GOV. CLINTON: Yeah, but the difference between me and the senate bill is -
or any other bill, we've got to take -- you've got to have dramatic insurance reforms.
If you don't stand up to the insurance companies, you're not going to save any money
with them. And second thing you have to do is have a dramatic plan to reduce the cost
of paperwork of bureaucracy. This is a very inefficient system. The third thing you
have to do is to stop fee for service. If the more you spend, the more you make, and
you have no control over that, the system will continue to spend out of control.
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MR. LEHRER: What do you mean, stop fee for service?
GOV. CLINTON: I mean you can't just - I don't believe that -- I think what I
want to do is get more people in health care networks. I don't like the word, managed
care, 'cause it implies you're giving -- you're taking stuff away from people. But
you're talking -
MR LEHRER: Fee for service means I go to a doctor, and I pick my own private
doctor and my own private hospital. You're saying you don't the --
GOV. CLINTON: No, I think - I think they should be able to do it, but they
should also have the freedom to enroll in networks where they pay a yearly fee for
being in it so that there's - you take some of the incentives out for spending more
money by the providers. I also believe that you - I agree with Senator Kerry on this.
You have to have some agreement at the national level and at the state level to keep the
cost of health care in the aggregate within inflation. And, finally, you got to do
something about drug costs. They are not subject to regular competition, and about the
distribution of unnecessary technology.
Now, these are the kinds of tough decisions that everybody's going to have to
make. The Bush program doesn't do any of that. I believe that the Tsongas proposal
and financing is more realistic, and we can get there quicker. I believe that it is
important to maintain some competition, but everybody's got to have access to a
comprehensive health care network and a centralized billing system and absolute
dramatic reductions in the paper trail that is engulfing hospitals.
MR.
LEHRER:
Senator Tsongas, is it --
GOV. CLINTON: Wait a minute.
MR. LEHRER: Sure.
GOV. CLINTON Any one of these plans, first of all, is going to be modified as
we go along through congress. Bob Kerry's right. If one of us gets elected president,
we'll have national health care for everybody. And, secondly, I want to say any one of
going. these plans five years from now will save a hundred billion dollars over the way we're
MR. LEHRER: Including Kerry's plan?
GOV. CLINTON:
Absolutely. But in the beginning it's cost too much money -
SEN. KERREY: It is not true that if one of elected - I mean I've got a very
specific proposal. I'm fighting for national health insurance. Paul's fighting for
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So you are saying that there will be a payroll tax --
which they can call a payroll tax or whatever, down the road for
GOV. CLINTON: There will be there will be a buy-in tax,
those who don't provide health insurance in any other way. But it
will be a service to those folks in the sense that it'll be
undercutting the market if we can't get the insurance markets down
to an affordable rate. But if you look at what's going on in Hawaii
now, 98 percent of the people in Hawaii are covered under their
coverage plan. Two companies have 65 percent of the market because
they went to broad-based community ratings. And the average
employer premium is 50 percent below the United States average.
Q
Now, the Bush administration says that your plan will
cost hundreds of thousands of jobs and billions of dollars in
business. Do you agree with that?
The Bush administration plan is costing jobs.
GOV. CLINTON: No, it'll save hundreds of thousands of jobs.
Q
But are you
GOV.
CLINTON: Let me just -- let's lay this out here now. We
are spending 13.3 percent of our income on health care. Our nearest
competitor, Canada, is at 9.1. Germany is at 8.7. Japan's at 8.7.
In the last six years, Germany has kept health care costs under
inflation. Result: Average factor worker makes 20 percent more
than the average American for working a shorter work week, has
has family leave.
universal health insurance. gets a four-week paid vacation a year,
Q
But if you require American companies to provide
insurance, increasing their costs, or you require them to pay a
payroll tax, why that won't hurt them economically?
today -- because we are the only major nation in the world that
off on the rest of us. Look what's happening. All these companies
GOV. CLINTON: They're all paying for it anyway or throwing it
stubbornly refuses to have the national government institute a
system of cost control, what's happened today? All these businesses
are dropping health care coverage or they're hiring part-time
workers and temporary workers in place of full-time workers. So
what happens to all those people? They still get health care. Even
they don't have any coverage, they get it. But they don't get it
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LEVEL 1 - 22 OF 190 STORIES
Copyright 1992 Chicago Tribune Company
Chicago Tribune
April 19, 1992, Sunday, FINAL EDITION
SECTION: PERSPECTIVE; Pg. 1; ZONE: C
LENGTH: 1634 words
HEADLINE: No simple cure
Candidates offer plans
to reform health care system
YLINE: By Rogers Worthington; Rogers Worthington is a Tribune correspondent.
BODY:
The symptoms of the nation's ailing health care system are almost canon by
DW: More than 35 million people lack insurance to pay for medical costs. And
those costs. are surging at a rate of 13 to 14 percent a year, straining the
nances of families and employers.
"There's a lid on them somewhere, but we may not even be close to it," said
rian Cooper, a census analyst with the U.S. Commerce Department. Cooper notes
at on a per capita basis, Americans now are spending almost as much on health
re as they are on food.
Health care coverage has become the iceberg issue of 1992. There are forums,
ferences and seminars on the subject. Twenty-nine bills for health care
orm await action in congressional committees. Fiscally beleaguered state
ernments, impatient with lack of federal action, are attempting health care
orms on their own. And in polls, voters are stating loud and clear that the
1th care issue has a priority second only to the nation's economy.
"The big fear in America today is 'I may lose my health insurance,' whether
h losing jobs, companies
cutting back on benefits or insurance firms raising
niums, If said Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-Calif.), chairman of the health
ommittee of the House Ways and Means Committee. And as the economy worsened,
aid, "that fear (was) building.'
resident Bush and Democratic presidential candidates Bill Clinton and Jerry
n each say they have the cure for what ails America's tottering health care
em. In the months to come, their plans and others will be the focal point
brewing national debate, and the outcome could be as significant, say some,
te creation of the federal income tax and the New Deal.
own's plan mirrors a system that has been field-tested in Canada, and
on's is modeled loosely on one in Hawaii that has been in operation since
Bush's is a new and untested approach, similar to one developed by the
rvative Heritage Foundation. Clinton and Bush would preserve the roles of
insurers; Brown would not.
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Chicago Tribune, April 19, 1992
PAGE
4
America" bill. It is aimed at making "affordable" health care available
into Employers a public would superfund either that buy would private cover health insurance for their workers to all.
unemployed. income-adjusted Either scale. way, the employee would them, have as to well pay as as well, the poor probably and on or an pay
many practices Clinton families doesn't into mention instant cash what crises. would happen He to the deductibles that now
ealth conditions, that now gender divide and people age. into higher does risk seek groups an end because to the of underwriting pre-existing throw
uplication ttempting He would to of try hold to down hold prescription down costs drug by setting annual health budget targets,
stablishing isurance rates medical costly practice high-tech guidelines diagnostic with prices, equipment eliminating within a metropolitan needless area,
eliver primary care. and encouraging the education of an more eye toward general lowering practitioners malpractice to
Clinton's
plan
pice d ke group Bush, of health the Arkansas networks, is short governor which on are seems cost to containment lean toward and managed financing care details, such and, HMOs
hefits for physicians. the elderly. Clinton's plan more also cost ignores -efficient long-term but home-based limit consumers' as care
loyer y" Critics employers to say dump "play were workers too or pay" into high. would a And plan if cost set too jobs low, if the it would mandated encourage payroll the tax "play" on
k door to a national system that health would care become plan. little more than encourage a poorly a less thought-out than the
icaid-style they had. Further, critics say "play that or pay" probably would would offer
il 'It Edmond will work, but it will have a cost that will unacceptable,
Haislmaier, a health care analyst at the Heritage prove to Foundation. be
m: Single payer
th insurance status, through a tax-supported " single regardless
r rown employment would seek to provide health care for all Americans, of
th program like Canada's, with universal access payer" to doctors national and
care facilities of choice.
ponsors single-payer but faces bill authored by Rep. Marty Russo (D-Ill.) has lined up 67
inn.) has a gantlet of committee scrutiny. Sen. Paul Wellstone
submitted a companion version in the Senate.
der replacing Brown's plan, the government would be the single hospital
quality spools of red tape and paper, while giving
ain-size some 300 insurance companies. Brown says this payer will eliminate of
e estimate care would of his choice. The $67 billion he and the everyone General the Accounting
cative roles be saved by eliminating the insurance companies'
ured Ameri
could be used, he says.
Regu Portm.
Rec 'd 900 Am
9/22/92
Encouraging Entrepreneurial Capitalism:
Strengthening Small Business
I. Introduction: The Challenge
Historians will record the twentieth century as the
American Century. It was in this century that the United
States first became actively engaged around the world.
Throughout this century, we have sought to advance two ideals -
- democracy and free enterprise -- that have served us well for
more than two hundred years.
Today, in country after country, given the choice, people
have chosen these two ideals as the path they want to pursue.
We have just completed the greatest mission of this American
century -- the triumph of democratic capitalism over imperial
communism.
Despite these victories in the marketplace of ideas, many
Americans are anxious about the future. Sluggish economic
growth in the United States, Europe, and Japan has fueled many
of these concerns.
We sense the epic changes at work in the world and in the
economy the uneasiness felt in the democracies who have served
as our partners.
For America to be safe and strong, we must move
confidently to meet the defining challenge of the 1990s: to
win the economic competition in an integrated global economy,
and provide Americans with prosperity and economic security.
We must be a military superpower, an economic superpower, and
an export superpower.
My Agenda for American Renewal states that we need to look
forward -- to open new markets, prepare our people to work,
strengthen our families, save and invest so that we can win.
Our renewal depends on economic growth -- but growth not for
the few at the expense of the many, not for the present at the
expense of the future.
In our country we have always prized an entrepreneurial
capitalism that grows from the bottom up, not the top down; a
prosperity that begins on Main Street and extends to Wall
Street -- not the other way around.
One of our great strengths is our capacity to innovate, to
adjust, to change, to redeploy our resources to their most
efficient uses. The economic future will belong to those
nations most able to innovate and adapt. Those burdened by
bigness often sacrifice quickness and agility for size.
Entrepreneurial capitalism is the sparkplug for America's
economic engine. Its energy depends on creating a climate that
encourages creativity, rewards innovation, promotes
flexibility, and requires competition. Small businesses are
essential in helping America meet the challenge of an
integrated world economy.
II. The Context: The Role of Small Business in the Economy
Small business has long played an important role in the
U.S. economy. Small businesses, those businesses with fewer
than 500 employees, today employ more than 50 percent of the
U.S. work force.
They account for 44 percent of all sales and generate 39
percent of the GDP. Thirteen percent of our labor force --
15.6 million workers -- are self-employed.
Small businesses are a crucial element of our nation's
manufacturing sector. In 1991, 98 percent of all manufacturing
firms were small businesses.
Last year, 63 percent of all manufacturing jobs were
located in small businesses -- close to one in every five (18
percent) manufacturing jobs were in firms that employed less
than 50 workers. Between 1985 and 1991, small manufacturers
with less than 100 workers created over 200,000 net new jobs.
III. Recognizing Our Strengths
Small business is one of the strengths of the U.S.
economy. It contributes to our economic well being in four
important respects.
First, our success in creating jobs is in large part
attributable to the vitality of our small businesses. Small
business is the engine that propels the economy.
Small businesses create two-thirds of our new jobs.
During the 1980s, small businesses added about 12.5
million additional workers, while employment in
Fortune 500 companies actually declined.
From 1988 to 1990, small businesses created more than
3 million jobs -- the entire net increase in the
nation's job growth for that period in the private,
non-farm sector.
Second, small businesses are a catalyst for innovation --
the driving force in a dynamic economy. Small firms produce
about 2.4 times as many innovations per employee as large
firms. They have been responsible for over half (55 percent)
of the country's technical and industrial innovations since the
second World War.
Third, small businesses will enable the U.S. to become an
export superpower. Forty percent of all U.S. exporters are
small businesses. Every billion dollars in exports creates
20,000 new jobs.
Fourth, the dynamism of small business has provided an
avenue of advancement for minorities and women. During the
1980s, the number of Black-owned businesses grew by almost 40
percent, and the number of Black-owned manufacturing
establishments more than doubled from 1982 to 1987.
Likewise, the most recent Census bureau statistics show
more than 422,000 Hispanic-owned businesses nationally, an
increase of 81 percent from 1982. The rate of growth of
Hispanic-owned businesses is almost six times the rate for all
businesses. Between 1982 and 1987, the number of businesses
owned by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders rose 89.3
percent.
Women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men.
Thirty percent of all small businesses in the U.S. are owned by
women. If the trend continues, nearly 48 percent of all small
businesses will be owned by women by the turn of the century.
IV. Helping Small Businesses Get Started
My Agenda for American Renewal encourages the
entrepreneurial spirit of our private businesses. It offers
pursue tax, economic and social policies that give incentives
for entrepreneurship, rather than discouraging it.
This is common sense. When government permits individuals
to keep the rewards of their success, they will keep trying
until they succeed. But when government exacts a higher price
for entrepreneurship, it undermines the incentive for
individuals to start new businesses and create jobs.
That is why I want to cut the capital gains tax and index
it for inflation. But in the case of small businesses, I
propose to go one step further and cut the tax on capital gains
from small business start-ups to zero. These changes would
permit small business owners to keep the economic rewards they
have earned in return for the risks they have taken, giving
them a greater incentive to undertake those risks.
Some potential entrepreneurs are deterred by the high
initial costs of starting a company. Under our tax laws, they
can only deduct those expenses over many years.
I propose changing the tax laws to allow individuals to
deduct up to $2,500 of those start-up costs in the first year,
when those costs hit small business owners the hardest. ($0.5
billion)
These economic incentives should help. But sometimes
direct financial assistance is required, particularly for those
who may be unable to obtain credit to start a business from
traditional financing institutions.
I recently signed legislation to reform the Small Business
Investment Company (SBIC) program. The legislation creates a
new $250 million program designed to provide equity-type
financing to small businesses with high growth potential.
Under the new program, SBICs will be better able to make equity
investments in small firms wanting to develop and market their
visionary ideas.
In order to fill that need, the Small Business
Administration started a $45 million program earlier this year
to provide unsecured short-term loans in small amounts -- up to
$25,000 -- to budding entrepreneurs or small businesses that
would like to expand.
Finally, my Administration is seeking new ways to help
those who might wish to start a small business. The Small
Business Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, working in partnership, recently agreed to start a
pilot program in Atlanta to assist public housing residents and
other low-income residents in the neighborhood to start their
own businesses.
Under the program, the SBA and HUD provide managerial,
technical and financial assistance to residents who are
interested in starting or expanding a business to provide
services for the housing project or its residents, including
maintenance and custodial services, appliance repairs, security
services, lawn care, child care or transportation services.
V.
Helping Small Businesses Get Access to Credit
Small businesses need adequate access to credit.
Entrepreneurs can't do it alone. They need credit to set up
shop and then to expand. They are not looking for a handout,
but a chance to give a good return on investment.
In 1992 we have provided a record $6 billion in loan
authority to permit the Small Business Administration to
guarantee small business loans. This is 50 percent above the
1991 level.
More than $2 billion in loan authority has been provided
this fiscal year to help small businesses recover from the
effects of devastating natural disasters including Hurricanes
Andrew and Iniki and the Los Angeles riots. The Small Business
Administration has initiated steps to streamline the
application process so that businesses are able to get back on
their feet again without delay.
I know that many small businesses have had a tough time
borrowing. We have been fighting the credit crunch in every
possible way. First, we worked with the Federal Reserve Board
to lower interest rates. Interest rates are now at their
lowest levels in twenty years.
Then we met with nearly every bank regulator in the
country, and told them that banks must be able to lend to good
borrowers. We made thirty separate regulatory changes to
remove federal barriers to sound lending. Government
overregulation should not stand in the way of creating new
businesses and jobs.
Earlier this year, I initiated the New England Lending and
Recovery Project in order to respond to severe credit crunch
problems in that area. Under this project, the Small Business
Administration has been working with the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to review the performing loans in
their portfolio. The goal is to identify loans that could be
restructured or refinanced under the SBA's Section 7(a) loan
program, thus averting a possible foreclosure action on the
loan by the FDIC. This initiative has provided much needed
assistance to save small businesses and the workers they
employ.
We took the message to the banks as well. Last week
Secretary Brady met with bank CEOs from around the country to
discuss credit market conditions and to encourage a strong
focus on small business lending.
We have directed bank examiners to conduct their valuation
of real estate based on the ability to generate income, not on
its liquidation value.
Then we took the message to Wall Street. Working with
the Securities and Exchange Commission, we are making it easier
for small companies to sell shares by eliminating the paperwork
requirements that drive up the cost of getting investors.
First, issuers of "seed capital" offerings will be able to
issue up to $1 million annually in securities exempt from SEC
registration requirements.
Second, the SEC is raising from $1.5 million to $5 million
the maximum amount of securities that can be issued in a
limited public offering using simplified disclosure procedures.
Third, the SEC has expanded its shelf registration rules
to allow up to 450 additional small and medium sized companies
to register securities offerings only once every two years.
These steps could increase available investment capital by $1
trillion.
Finally, the SEC is adopting rules to foster investment in
small businesses by mutual funds.
VI. Helping Small Businesses Reduce the Cost of Capital
If small business is to accelerate its role as an engine
for creating jobs we must bring down the cost of capital by
reducing costly tax and regulatory burdens. Our task is two
fold: reduce capital costs directly and reduce the paperwork
burden that fall SO heavily on small businesses.
I am proposing a five-year $20 billion initiative to
achieve these two objectives. This initiative includes:
Reducing the corporate tax rate for small businesses
from 15 percent to 10 percent; ($5.5 billion)
Increasing the current expensing limit from $10,000
to $25,000; ($8.4 billion)
Eliminating capital gains taxes on newly issued small
business stock; ($0.7 billion)
Permitting the immediate write-off of up to $2,500 of
the front end costs of organizing a new business;
($0.5 billion) and
Simplifying the tax laws so that most small
businesses can file their returns on one or two
pages. ($4.9 billion)
This simplification will grant Alternative Minimum
Tax relief for preferences arising from active
participation in a small business; allow small
businesses to elect inflation-adjusted inventory
accounting rules; exempt small businesses from
uniform capitalization and long-term contract rules;
and enhance and simplify pension rules for small
businesses.
Winston Churchill once said to America: "Give us the tools
and we will finish the job." This is the cry of entrepreneurs.
We hear your voice. Every day we are pushing aside the
barriers that stand in the way of building your businesses and
creating new jobs.
VII. Helping Small Businesses Expand Employment and Increase
Productivity
Small businesses today face a new competitive environment
-- challenged not only by competitors in their neighborhood,
their city and throughout the Nation, but also by competing
firms from around the world. In the new global economy, each
of our companies -- from the largest to the smallest -- must
have the tools they need not only to compete, but to win.
The ability of small businesses to grow and compete in the
global economy depends on their ability to innovate, increase
productivity, attract and retain highly-skilled workers and
find new markets for their products. The Federal government
can do its part by encouraging investment in R&D, supporting
efforts to improve the quality of our workforce, reforming our
legal system and opening foreign markets for American products
and services.
A. Supporting Innovative Research
In order to be the world's economic leader tomorrow, we
must invest in research and development and foster new
technologies today. That is why I want to make the research
and experimentation tax credit permanent. This credit, which
was adopted in 1981 to encourage increased private R&D
spending, has been renewed periodically for a year or two at a
time. It is time to create predictable rules small businesses
can count on when making R&D investment decisions by renewing
it permanently.
Our Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program
fosters the pioneering spirit of small businesses in research
and development activities. Under the SBIR program, eleven
major Federal agencies set aside a percentage of their R&D
funds for contracts with small firms.
My Administration strongly supports increasing the portion
of the Federal R&D budget set aside for small business from
1.25 percent to 2.5 percent. Congress should pass this
legislation immediately. Since the program began ten years
ago, more than $2.2 billion in Federal R&D funding has been
directed to small businesses.
One of the goals of the SBIR program is to encourage small
firms to develop products and technologies that have commercial
applications. At least one in four SBIR award winners has
achieved commercial sales or expects that commercial sales will
occur.
B.
Improving the Quality of Our Workforce
In the 21st century, our greatest national resource will
be our people. Materials, machines, and methods are also
important, but it is the American worker who will remain the
key to our economic security. Since the workplace of the 21st
century will be constantly changing, we need a workforce that
is skilled and adaptable.
Those industries showing the fastest rate of employment
growth include many small-business-dominated industries that
require highly-trained workers: engineering, biotechnology,
architectural, business and recreation services and automotive
repair. Those growing industries with a skilled workforce will
have an advantage in the new global marketplace.
That is what my American 2000 program is all about. It
includes four crucial elements:
Accountability.
Our students can't beat world class competition if they
can't meet world class standards. We are moving ahead
with the development of these standards in math, science,
English, history, geography, arts and civics. And we need
voluntary national achievement tests to measure the
progress of our students in meeting these standards.
Innovation.
We need break-the-mold New American Schools that will
transform our classrooms by developing and implementing
the latest in technology and ideas for teaching our
students.
Flexibility.
We need to give schools the flexibility to become
educational entrepreneurs --to figure out the best ways to
motivate our children, use technology, include parents and
involve new types of teachers.
Competition and Choice.
We must give parents the ability to choose which school
their children will attend -- public, private or.
religious.
We must prepare workers for the prospect of changing jobs
and learning new skills many times throughout the course of a
productive life. In January 1992, I announced a plan to
streamline the Federal job training system through "one-stop
shopping" in every community. Experience has demonstrated that
the most effective training and placement services are those
closely developed with local employers through private industry
councils. That way the training is designed to develop skills
that employers know they will need.
My expanded job training proposal has three key features:
Universal coverage, so all dislocated workers will
have access to basic transition assistance and
training support;
Skill grant vouchers of up to $3000 to help meet the
costs of adding new skills and training; and
A tripling of the resources currently devoted to
training and worker adjustment, an allocation of $10
billion over five years.
I have also proposed a specially-targeted Youth Skills
Initiative. The Initiative includes creation of a new Youth
Training Corps to provide economically and socially
disadvantaged young people with intensive vocational training,
and a National Youth Apprenticeship Program to provide skills
training for young people not planning to attend college.
C. Reforming Our Legal System
America has suffered a civil litigation explosion. Over
the past 30 years, Federal lawsuits have almost tripled.
Instead of being fast, fair and affordable, our civil justice
system is slow, expensive, and putting us at a global
disadvantage.
The cost of litigation affects businesses of every size.
Long delays in resolving disputes waste valuable judicial
resources, force early settlement by those who cannot afford to
wait, discourage those who have meritorious suits, and
encourage frivolous suits by those who hope to leverage unjust
settlements. High punitive damage awards are passed on to
consumers through higher prices, job cuts, higher insurance
premiums, and fewer new products.
The major obstacle to reform is, simply put, trial
lawyers. I support product liability reform legislation to
confront the trial lawyers head on. It would stop wide
variation among states' product liability rules; stop important
products from being kept off the market; stop excessive
litigation costs with more money going to lawyers than to
injured consumers; cut excessive insurance rates; and end
excessive consumer costs.
My "Access to Justice Act of 1992" is intended to restore
fairness and efficiency to the nation's civil justice system
through: alternatives to Federal civil trials such as
alternative dispute resolution; incentives for pre-litigation
settlement, including pre-complaint notification; and a "loser
pays" rule requiring the loser to pay the winner's legal fees
in suits involving Federal diversity jurisdiction.
We also need to continue our work with the States to
encourage fundamental change at the State and local level.
D. Expanding and Opening Foreign Markets
America is an exporting nation. In 1991, we regained the
position of the world's number one exporter. Even more
impressive, a relatively small percentage of American firms are
responsible for most U.S. exports. Fifteen percent of U.S.
firms account for nearly 85 percent of U.S. exports.
Small American businesses represent an immense, largely
untapped source of export capacity. Today, small businesses
have begun to see the potential that lies in selling their
goods and services to eager markets abroad. My Administration
has been active in making that dream a reality.
Through the programs of the Small Business Administration
(SBA) and the Department of Commerce, we have provided
information, counseling, training and even financing to
thousands of small businesses who are dealing for the first
time with the challenges of the international marketplace.
The Department of Commerce has held over thirty
international trade conferences and seminars across the country
to work with small businesses, provide information they need to
market their products overseas, and identify U.S. government
programs and sources of financing that can help them get
started. In addition, the Commerce Department's Matchmaker
program has introduced hundreds of small businesses to foreign
markets, arranging for them to meet directly with potential
foreign buyers for their products.
The SBA has encouraged small businesses to take advantage
of its Export Revolving Line of Credit program. This special
pilot project provides a revolving working capital line of
credit to help small manufacturers bridge the gap between
receipt of orders for their goods and receipt of payment.
Export loans under the Line of Credit program jumped from $4.85
million in 1990 to over $26 million in 1991. In the first
three quarters of 1992, the SBA extended $28 million in loans
to small exporters under this program.
All SBA loans to exporters increased from $42 million in
1990 to $123 million in 1991, with an additional $195 million
in loans during the first three quarters of 1992.
Of course, it is the private sector that must lead the
charge in taking advantage of opportunities to market American
products abroad. But where government can help in opening
markets and making those first steps a little easier, we will
continue to do so.
E. Creating Enterprise Zones
Our inner cities and rural areas suffer from a lack of
economic opportunities for their residents. In order to entice
individuals to establish small businesses in these areas, I
have proposed creating enterprise zones. Workers employed by
enterprises in the zone would be eligible for a tax credit on
wages. Inner city entrepreneurs starting businesses and small
investors who start or purchase businesses located in
enterprise zones would be entitled to deduct up to $50,000 on
their personal income taxes each year, and would not be taxed
on capital gains resulting from their investment.
These measures will promote entrepreneurship and job
creation in economically distressed urban and rural
communities.
VIII. Clearing Away the Regulatory Maze
If small businesses are to thrive and prosper, they must
be free to compete without the burden of unnecessary and
restrictive Federal regulation. We are working to create a
business environment in which regulations addressing legitimate
health and safety concerns are balanced with the need to
strengthen economic growth and job creation.
In my State of the Union Address last January, I
announced, and have since extended through August 28, 1993, a
regulatory reform initiative which places a moratorium on new
Federal regulations that stifle economic growth. I also
instructed Federal agencies to look for ways to modify existing
regulations that impose a special economic burden on small
business.
In addition, we have undertaken several reforms to reduce
the costs and burdens imposed on small businesses in complying
with the Federal tax system.
A. Reducing the Costs of the Payroll Tax System
Last May my Administration announced several initiatives
that will reduce administrative costs for the more than 3.5
million small employers who must report employment taxes.
Currently, many small employers must make payroll tax
deposits as often as twice a week, using paper coupons. This
time-consuming, inefficient system must be simplified. So we
propose to allow as many as 75 percent of all employers to
deposit payroll taxes once a month, and to make those deposits
electronically.
These simplifications will reduce substantially the costs
to employers, particularly small businesses, of complying with
payroll tax regulations. In addition, these changes are
expected to reduce payroll tax penalties by more than 20
percent.
The IRS is developing a new simplified employment tax form
that will eliminate information ordinarily relevant only to
large businesses. The IRS anticipates the new form will be
available by the first quarter of 1994.
It is also inefficient and unacceptable to expect
employers to file employment tax forms for each employee with
the IRS, the Social Security Administration, and State and
local tax agencies. So we are creating a new Single Wage
Reporting System that would require only a single filing,
thereby saving substantial administrative costs.
Finally, by 1993, the IRS plans to save employers from
needless paperwork and correspondence with the IRS by
permitting employers to verify employees' tax identification
numbers (such as a social security number) by telephone.
B. Reducing Other Tax-Related Burdens
We are also working to reduce the burdens on small
businesses in complying with other aspects of the Federal tax
system. The Internal Revenue Service is allowing sole
proprietors, including farmers, to deduct business-related tax
preparation fees as a business expense rather than as a limited
itemized deduction.
The IRS is also working with States on a pilot program for
the joint electronic filing of Federal and State tax returns.
To help small businesses deal with the complexities of the tax
system, the IRS has informally contacted over 150,000 small
businesses having difficulty complying with Federal tax deposit
requirements. The IRS is now working with these taxpayers,
outside the formal audit and enforcement context, to address
compliance concerns. In addition, during 1991 the IRS
conducted over 2,400 Small Business Tax Education Workshops and
seminars which were attended by more than 80,000 executives.
IX. Helping Small Businesses Provide for Their Workers
In order to attract and retain good workers, small
businesses need to be able to afford to provide the benefits
that will give their employees economic security. Three key
areas of concern to many workers are health benefits, family
leave policies and pension benefits.
A.
Affordable Health Care for Small Businesses and the
Self-Employed
Our current health care system provides high quality,
high-tech medicine, but at an unacceptable price: prices have
increased at a rate two to three times the rest of the economy;
thirty-five million Americans have no health insurance and
current practices leave workers fearful of changing jobs
because they may lose their health insurance.
My comprehensive program to reform our health care system
includes provisions that allow small businesses to reduce their
health insurance costs by pooling their purchasing power. By
joining together to form Health Insurance Networks, small
employers can have the same market clout and market
sophistication of the biggest players in the health care
marketplace. Group purchasing can reduce health insurance
costs by as much as 16 percent through economies of scale,
lower administrative costs and greater leverage to negotiate
better rates with insurers.
Small employers also face the possibility of skyrocketing
insurance premiums, or the inability to obtain any health
insurance at all, if even one employee or employee family
member is seriously ill. 'My plan guarantees insurability so
that people with "preexisting" illnesses cannot be denied a job
or health coverage on the job.
Our health care plan guarantees affordable coverage
through a two-phase process. In the short term, we will limit
the difference in premiums that an insurer may charge to groups
with different health risks, SO that no employer has to pay
astronomical insurance premiums. In the next phase, we will
create risk pools both for small businesses and for individuals
and families receiving tax credits for health insurance.
Health plans insuring a sicker than average population would
receive a net transfer from the risk pool while other insurers
will be net payers into the pool.
My plan will also benefit the self-employed, permitting
them to deduct 100 percent of their health care insurance
premiums as opposed to the 25 percent they currently are
permitted to deduct. ($5.0 billion) This is fair and treats
them similarly to other businesses.
I believe we can provide access to affordable health care
for all Americans, while preserving choice for patients and
their families in selecting doctors, hospitals, health care
programs, and employment. My approach relies on the private
sector to deliver health care services. But I would make the
market work for us by enhancing competition, which will cut
costs.
B. Incentives for Family Leave Policies
A growing number of families have two wage-earners or are
headed by a single parent. As a result, it is more difficult
for individuals to balance the demands of their job with the
need to care for a seriously ill or injured family member, or
to take time off to have a child or adopt one.
Employers may face significant costs from lost production,
lost business opportunities, or other costs as the result of
extended employee absences. These costs are particularly high
for small and medium businesses that may not be able easily to
shift employees to cover for the absent worker or to hire a
temporary replacement. These smaller companies are also more
likely to experience severe economic consequences if they do
not quickly replace absent workers.
Since employers frequently must place limits on employee
absences due to the economic costs of providing leave, some
employees find themselves faced with choosing between their
employment and the serious medical or personal needs of their
families.
I propose to provide tax incentives to encourage
businesses that employ fewer than 500 employees to adopt
flexible leave policies related to childbirth, adoption or
serious family health problems. Small employers who provide
family leave to their employees would be eligible for a
refundable tax credit of 20 percent of compensation to the
employee during the period of family leave, up to a maximum of
$100 a day in wages and benefits. The maximum credit per
employee would be $1,200 per year. The employer must continue
to provide health benefits and other employment protection and
benefits to employees on family leave and must provide leave on
a nondiscriminatory basis. ($3.1 billion)
My approach helps our smallest businesses provide family
leave. This is the group of workers who most need the help.
In contrast, the bill supported by many in Congress would only
affect employees in businesses with more than fifty employees.
C. Retirement Security
Many Americans rely on their pension to provide them with
a secure source of income during their retirement years. But
many employees of small businesses are not so fortunate. Only
24 percent of small firm employees have pension coverage; the
rest -- some 26 million individuals -- have no pension at all.
Even those employees with pensions often lose accrued
benefits as retirement income when they change jobs prior to
retirement age. Current law gives workers the incentive to
cash in their benefits -- get a lump-sum payment -- rather than
to roll the money over into another retirement plan or an IRA.
I am determined to turn those incentives around -- to make
it easy for workers to take the pension benefits they have
earned in one job to the next. Earlier this year, I was proud
to sign into law a bill that makes pensions portable. It
permits workers to transfer their accrued pension benefits from
their old job directly to an IRA or their new employer's
pension plan, if that plan accepts transfers.
The new law also imposes a 20 percent mandatory
withholding penalty on lump-sum payments of pension benefits
that are not transferred directly to a new retirement account.
By encouraging preservation of retirement savings, we can
ensure a more secure future for working men and women.
I also want to help the millions of employees without
pensions by creating a new, simplified retirement program for
small businesses, and by allowing State and local governments
and tax-exempt organizations to establish 401 (k) retirement
plans. At the same time, we will simplify the rules for
administering retirement plans. By reducing administrative
costs, more small companies and organizations will be able to
afford to provide pensions for their employees.
X.
Two Paths
We stand at a crossroads where two paths diverge in
markedly different directions. They represent competing
conceptions of the course our country should pursue.
Taxes
Our path promises to strengthen America's small businesses
through reducing the burden of taxes in order to stimulate
investment, research and development, and economic activity.
It would increase expensing for investments in equipment, help
businesses get started, and reduce capital gains to encourage
risk-taking.
My opponent's path relies on substantial increases in
taxes on small business -- taxes on so-called "high income"
individuals, three quarters of whom have income from small
business activity or family farms; payroll taxes to pay for
health care; requiring employers to spent 1.5 percent of
payroll for training -- all of which would drain profits,
reduce investment, and restrain the growth of jobs.
Regulatory Burden
Our path promises a comprehensive program to simplify and
ease the burden of regulations on small businesses and to
eliminate those that are unnecessary. It would modify existing
regulations that impose a special economic burden on small
business while fending off expensive new mandates. It would
reform our product liability laws and civil justice system to
reduce the cost of insurance to small businesses and the hidden
tax of needless litigation.
My opponent's path relies on government mandates and
regulations as the appropriate means for extensive government
intervention in the economy and accepts our current
liability laws and civil justice system as an inevitable cost
of doing business in America.
Health Care
Our path promises to assist those who work for small
businesses by helping these businesses secure access to
affordable health insurance, by permitting the self-employed to
deduct the health insurance premiums they pay as other
businesses do, and by providing credits and deductions for
those who need it in order to purchase affordable health
insurance.
My opponent's path relies on a mandated pay-or-play health
care scheme that effectively amounts to a doubling of the
payroll tax for most small businesses and that would quickly
cascade into ever more government-provided health care.
Family Leave
Our path promises to expand family leave to small
businesses by providing tax credits to offset the costs of
family and medical leave, while leaving decision making to
employers and employees.
My opponent's path relies on a government mandate that
sets inflexible leave requirements for companies with more than
50 employees, excludes employees of the smallest businesses,
and imposes a hidden tax on employees of medium-sized
businesses.
Access to Credit
Our path promises a concerted effort to keep interest
rates low and to facilitate the flow of credit to small
businesses. It would reduce the cost of capital to small
businesses so that they can make needed investments to expand
their capacity and increase their productivity.
My opponent's path relies on government direction of
additional resources to make investments in selected
industries.
Worker Training
Our path promises to revolutionize education and job
training while providing worker adjustment assistance for all
dislocated workers.
My opponent's path would mandate worker training while
imposing what amounts to a 1.5 percent payroll tax on small
business.
We face a choice between change that trusts people and
change that relies on greater government intervention in
managing and directing economic activity and resources. By
choosing our path that trusts people, we can reach our goal of
a $10 trillion economy by the first years of the 21st Century.
We can succeed as an economic and export superpower. We can
win the economic competition. We can renew our nation for the
next American century.
McGroarty/Aarhus
September 22, 1992
2:00 p.m.
[ncsb]
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS:
SMALL BUSINESS INITIATIVES EVENT
GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
SEPTEMBER 23, 1992
9:20 A.M.
Thank you, Pat [Harrison], for those kind words.
DaveAnderson
Pat Saiki
Advance
[Acknowledgements.]
I've come here to Greensboro to talk about small business -
- to drive home the fact that businesses, like the ones that come
b
(F2)
C
together in the Triad Business Community, generate the hope and
the pride and the jobs that hold America together. //
Joek
Take Joseph Koury [CURR-ee] -- a well-respected member X of
X
X
X
X
the Triad. Joseph wasn't always the one-man conglomerate we see
X
X
today. He started small: began building his empire in the early
years after World War II, buying up the old X Army barracks in
X
X
X
lots.
Greensboro, NC
[xxxx] and turning them into housing -- sometimes X for the same
to * peoples'
X
GIs who'd trained there before going off to war, now come home to
start a family. That ingenuity -- that spirit of enterprise --
that drive and dream tells us the meaning of opportunity ... the
meaning of America. //
Now today, America's economy is working its way through a
period of profound change. You see it here in North Carolina,
just the way you do all across the country. Many of our larger
companies have retrenched and restructured -- and I know those
changes have been difficult for many working Americans. But
America's small businesses have shown staying power -- creating
new products by the thousands -- and new jobs by the millions.
2
Let me give you one statistic that will drive home just what
X
TimAdams
I mean. In the 1980s, the number of workers employed by Fortune
500 companies actually dropped. But in that same decade, small
X
X
oped 8/10/92
SBA;
businesses boomed -- adding 12 and a half million new jobs. //
(m file)
The simple fact is, small businesses are often the first to
adapt to a changing world -- the first to turn change to
advantage -- the force at the leading edge of economic recovery.
That's why it's critical that we do all we can to strengthen
small businesses -- remove obstacles that stand in their way, and
create incentives that unleash America's entrepreneurial genius.
Helping small business reach for its dreams is key to my
X
Agenda for America Renewal. / I've set a goal -- to make
X
X
Detroit Econ
X
X
America the world's first $10 trillion dollar economy in the
Club Sp.
X
X
X
X
X
early years of the 21st Century. And when we get to that goal -
- not if, but when -- it won't be the chairmen of the Fortune 500
we have to thank -- it will be the men and women who run the
small businesses that power America, the men and women of the
Triad Business Community. //
Donnattarper, 205-6740
X
X
Right now, small business employs over half our workforce.
X
X
Small business creates two-thirds of the new jobs in America.
Small business is a hothouse for innovation, risk-taking, new
ideas -- the engine of entrepreneurial capitalism that pulls this
economy forward. //
I know -- because I've been there. I've run a small
business -- built it from the ground up, with a lot of help from
partners and employees. I know what it's like to sweat out a
3
deal, shop for credit, stay up late worrying how you're going to
meet the next payroll. And I've even had the ulcers to prove it.
And let me tell you: I happen to think that meeting a
payroll isn't a bad qualification for being President of the
United States. //
The contrast with my opponent couldn't be clearer. He comes
at small business from a different direction. My opponent has
spent almost his entire adult life in government. When he wasn't
Nanaythabilis in
in government, he practiced law and taught law school. He even
came to Washington to the Congress for his summer jobs.
office
[[That's where he gets his international experience, by the way:
Two summers in the mailroom of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee. ]]
So it shouldn't surprise you that when it comes to the
economy, my opponent thinks government should lead -- with
planners whose idea of running a business is to do whatever the
American Political Science Association thinks should be done. //
Now I believe government can play a role in helping small
business. But it is a role of support -- not the lead. Not to
put a new bureaucracy of government planners in the business of
picking winners and losers -- but to help America do what it does
best: to make way for the American entrepreneur, the little guy
with the big idea.
I've put together a program to strengthen small business --
a program that will work, because it understands how small
4
businesses work. This is one important part of my comprehensive
Agenda for America Renewal.
Borter
I'm releasing the X full program today in a report I call
X
X
Roger 705
PAUSE.
Encouraging Entrepreneurial Capitalism. ((Hold up pamphlet. ))
That's a fancy name for the small business savvy America is known
for. Some of the ideas are ones we've been pushing for, for
years -- some are new: All of them are solid, sensible ways to
strengthen small business. // Here's what it does:
First, our program will help small businesses get started.
Many new businesses literally begin at home -- when entrepreneurs
convert their own "nest eggs" into capital. Germany doesn't X tax X
X
Tim Adams
capital gains at America's punitive rates -- neither does X Japan.
X
X
X
X
If we want to compete and win, it's time to reward the risk-
takers who turn their dreams into tomorrow's jobs. It's time to
cut the tax on capital gains.
Because we know you've got to crawl before you can walk,
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Betsy Anderson
we're also helping small businesses with an aggressive micro-
X
X
X
x
x
X
(annourced)
loan program -- from a few hundred dollars up to $25,000 at the
critical early stages when new ventures X are X most vulnerable. X
X
X
X
X
X
X
That's how we'll help entrepreneurs get their ideas off the
ground -- and their businesses up and running.
Part two of our small business program is to help existing
small businesses find credit. / The best idea in the world
can't work without capital. Entrepreneurs can't do it alone.
They need credit to set up shop and expand.
5
Right now, you and I know -- the credit crunch has hit small
business hard. That's why we've been working with bankers and
regulators across the country to ease the crunch -- free up the
flow of credit to companies like yours. Our X regulatory reform,
X
X
X
for example, by the Securities and Exchange Commission, has made
Rogerst Porter
it easier for small businesses to raise capital through stock
offerings -- to help growing firms get from Main Street to Wall
Street. /
And I've had the Small Business Administration working
overtime to help credit-starved businesses. This year alone,
X
BetsyAnderson
we've increased by more than 50 percent the loan guarantees
offered through SBA -- more than $6 billion for men and women X
(announced
X
X
X
X
with good ideas -- who want to turn those dreams into jobs. //
Small businesses is one of the most effective ways to bring
minority Americans into the economic mainstream. That's why just today
Kill
will release
yesterday, Pat Saiki of the SBA announced our plan to streamline
share Schrieser
X
X
Cabinet Affairs
our Minority Small Business program to bring economic opportunity
X
(release in in fie)
to thousands of entrepréneurs in cities all across America.
But today, I want to take our efforts one step further.
I
X
am proposing a 5-year, $20 billion dollar small-business
initiative -- to lift tax and regulatory burdens off the back X x of
X
X
X
small business, and cut the costs of capital.
My new initiative will smooth the way for small business X
X
start-ups -- by allowing entrepreneurs X to expense deduct $2,500 dollars
X
x
X
X
inthefirst year.
of their start-up costs A And it will increase the current small
deduction
X
business expensing limit from $10,000 to $25,000 dollars.
6
It includes steps to simplify tax laws so that most small
businesses can file a one- or two-page tax return. /
My
small business
stet
Roger Power 12705 105
initiative will eliminate all capital gains on newly issued small
start-ups Stet
bus iness stock and knock down the corporate tax rate on small
12
businesses from 15 to 10 percent. //
Third, we've got to help small business hire new workers and
increase productivity. / Small businesses -- like every
employer in America -- will benefit from education reforms like
America 2000 -- from our expanded job training initiatives / from
enterprise zones / and legal reform that ends the sky's-the-
limit lawsuits that can drive a small business into bankruptcy.
But even all of that is not enough. We've got to target special
assistance for small business.
Counsel delete - sounds like industrial
That's why I support aggressive new export promotion
policy
programs to help small businesses crack new markets abroad, and
create new jobs here at home. / You see, in the 21st Century,
America must be not just a military superpower, but an economic
superpower -- an export superpower. Right now, a fraction of
Commerce,
Susan Schwab
America's companies -- 15 percent -- account for 85 percent of
Asst.Sec. Sec.
LisaRossi
America's exports. We've got to open new markets for America's
377-0332
small businesses -- tap their explosive potential to make new
customers not just down the street, but around the world.
Small business is already helping us pioneer new worlds --
lead the way in the bio-technology revolution. That's one key
am supporting
Betsy Anderson
reason I ve ordered a 100% increase in federal R&D funds to help
x2774
small businesses generate the technologies of tomorrow.
7
Fourth, we've got to free small businesses from the tangle
(Mr.Alleng)
of red tape and regulation. [[NORTH CAROLINA EXAMPLE OF
X
EXCESSIVE REGULATION STRANGLING SMALL BUSINESS.]] That's why, in
January of this year, I ordered a freeze on federal regulations.
It's the reason I've gone forward without waiting for Congress to
streamline and simplify small business's tax reporting. You work
long and hard for your success. You should spend your time doing
business -- not doing paperwork.
And we've drawn the line against a Congress that's learned
to say, "why pass a law -- when you can saddle America's
businesses with another new federal mandate -- and let them
figure out how to pay for it."
Fifth and finally, we've got to help small business provide
for its workers.
/
To help the 15 million Americans who are
Donnattarper, SBA
X
X
X
205-6740
self-employed, I want to raise the deductible for health
Hanns Kuttner
x6563
insurance from 25 to 100 percent. I want to reform health
insurance -- give small companies the same advantage bigger
companies get when they shop for health care coverage, by
encouraging small companies to pool together to buy insurance.
We want to create tax incentives to help small businesses
offer their employees family leave -- not simply slap a mandate
on small businesses' back. And we want to expand small
businesses' ability to offer the portable pensions people will
need in a dynamic economy. //
8
Taken together, that's a strong package -- a comprehensive
program -- to give real-world help, right now, to the small
businesses that make this economy grow. //
What about my opponent? What's his plan for small business?
The difference couldn't be sharper. You see, I see small
business as the backbone of the American economy. Mr. Clinton
sees small business as the goose that lays the Golden Eggs. //
Bill Clinton's got big plans for bigger government -- and to
pay for it, he's got a tax plan for almost every day of the week:
X
X
X
X
Start with $150 billion in new taxes. Add a health care plan
X
RichardBillinine
that will lead to a 7 percent payroll tax to finance the
X
health care
government takeover of our hospitals. Add another payroll tax
for training -- and a tax on foreign companies operating here in X
X
X
X
x
X
the U.S. and employing American workers. //
I tell you, it's taxing just talking about it. / I guess
that's why yesterday my subconscious spoke up -- and called my
opponent Governor Taxes. //
Marty Reiser
Now, "Governor Taxes" says, yes, he wants to raise taxes --
but only on the top 2 percent. Standard "soak the rich"
rhetoric -- but what he won't tell you is this: two out of every X
Reiser
X
X
X
three people hit by Bill Clinton's tax hike would be small
863-8688
business owners or family farmers. These folks aren't
millionaires -- they're Mom and Pop, Inc. //
Take a look at what Bill Clinton's tax plan would mean for
small businesses right here in North Carolina. / If you're like
Billmine 7060 Richard NRCC
X
X
the typical small business, you operate with a profit margin of
9
X
X
X
about 2 percent. Your market is too competitive for you to pass
on costs by raising prices -- you've already cut costs to the
bone.
So when Bill Clinton's new taxes kick in, you've got a tough
Richard 7060 Billmine
choice. His payroll taxes alone amount X to 4 to 5 percent of your X
X
X
X
X
x
X
X
operating expenses. That's your profit margin -- and then some.
So here's your choice: you can board up the windows -- or
you can get out the pink slips.
X
X
X
X
X
x
X
X
X
X
x
I want to invite Bill Clinton and his advisors to follow
X
X
along for a little "business math." Just over X half of all small
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
x
x
businesses with between 10 and 20 employees have annual sales X of
X
Richard
X
x
X
X
X
X
X
5179-7060 Billmine
$500,000 to one million dollars. A 2% profit margin -- in the
X
X
X
X
X
X
best case -- gives that business a $20,000 profit.
X
Now, Bill Clinton's new taxes would cost that company X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
x
x
X
X
between $46,000 and $56,000 dollars -- so after you've handed
over your profit to the government, the only way to pay the rest
of the tax is by putting someone out of work. //
In the case of my example, that's 2 or 3 employees -- 2 XXX or 3
X
X
X
X
X
X
x
X
X
Richard
Billmire
479-7060
people out of a less than 20-person company who lose their X jobs. X
X
X
X
X
X
x
X
X
X
Think about that. Those 2 or 3 people aren't just numbers -
- names on a payroll spreadsheet. They're real people -- friends
and neighbors -- men and women with families to feed, mortgages
to pay. //
Now, if that 2 or 3 still doesn't sound like much -- keep
this in mind. In North Carolina alone, X 25% of X all X workers x --
X
X
X
X
Richard
ogatimilig
638,000 people -- work in companies the X same X size as the X one X in x
x
x
X
X
X
X
x
bth
10
X
my example, companies that will be crippled by Bill Clinton's new
X
X
X
taxes. Across this state, North Carolina has thousands of
Nearly 70% ofthestate's
Richard Billmire
businesses with less than 10 employees. More than 3000 grocery
80% of the state's
More 80% of the
stores. More than 2500 small furniture stores 4 out of every 5
479-
X
companies in the building trades. Book stores and beauty shops /
laundries and video stores and TV repair shops: The list goes on
and on. For them, Bill Clinton's tax plan means one thing:
Misery on Main Street. //
America is a nation of small businesses -- and those small
businesses will take a big hit under Bill Clinton's tax plan.
My opponent couldn't do more damage to America's entrepreneurs if
he'd declared war on small businesses. / Well, if you're like
me, you've got to say: Small business shouldn't be big-
government's piggy bank. //
Take a look for a t moment my approach -- and the contrast
with Bill Clinton. / I want to strengthen small businesses
across America by lowering taxes -- increasing R&D.
Bill Clinton wants to tax small businesses and small
business owners so he can give big government a raise.
I want to cut red tape, eliminate excessive regulation and
reform the ruinous legal system that's crippling this economy and
killing
small
businesses.
/(
/
Bill
Clinton
wants
to
saddle
small
business with new mandates, and he's told the trial lawyers of
America he wouldn't take away even one little loophole.
))
Counsel's
How about health care / job training / family leave?
repeat past
quote used
in speeches
11
I want to reform our health care system --- extend coverage
to all Americans, use the market to drive costs down while
keeping quality up. / Bill Clinton wants a payroll tax to
finance the government takeover of health care.
I want to give displaced workers a voucher to buy the
training they want. Bill Clinton? He wants to put a payroll tax
on workers.
I want to use tax credits to encourage businesses to provide
workers family leave. My opponent? Well
you see the pattern
more government rules and red tape.
Bill Clinton's got a "Punt, pass and kick" plan: // Punt
the problem over to business. Pass the costs along. And kick
the American worker -- right where he carries his wallet. //
You've got a choice in this election. A choice between two
different philosophies -- two different directions to take this
country. Bill Clinton puts his faith in the so-called "best and
brightest:" In his old Oxford cronies who believe "government
knows best" -- just like the social welfare crowd that pulled
Britain down before Maggie Thatcher pumped some life back in.
Well, I put my faith in the American people -- I want to see
you keep control of the decisions that really matter in life.
And when Bill Clinton says "government knows best" -- I say: You
know better. //
Let me sum it up this way: Bill Clinton is wrong for
America. And you know I'm right. //
12
Here's what Bill Clinton and the "government first" crowd
just don't understand: Government can print money -- but it
can't create wealth. The great ideas that make this economy grow
don't begin in the marbled halls of some federal building back in
Washington. More great ideas -- more of our GDP -- begins at a
basement workbench, at the computer on your kitchen table, with
the savings you set aside to start a business of your own. //
America is the envy of the world: not because its government
is great -- but because its people are great. Because the
American people are builders who dream, and dreamers who build.
We need a government that understands that fundamental fact.
My program -- my Agenda for American Renewal -- will make the
next American Century a new American Century, a time of peace and
prosperity for all. //
Thank you once again for this warm welcome -- and may God
bless the United States of America.
# # #
SEP 21 '92 17:57 ADMIN OFFICE OFC
P.2/3
92-
DRAFT
Immediate
D.J. Caulfield
202-205-6742
SBA STREAMLINES MINORITY PROGRAM; EASES ENTRY, CONTRACT PROCESS
WASHINGTON -- AB part of President Bush's plan for overall
government deregulation, Administrator Patricia Saiki of the U.S.
Small Business Administration (SBA) today announced plans to
streamline the agency's Minority Small Business (MSB) program to
increase efficiency and broaden participation.
"This business development program, targeted to minorities,
must be more inclusive and it must deliver its services in a more
timely fashion," said Saiki.
The reorganization, which requires some Congressional
approval, will ease eligibility and procurement regulations,
increase federal contracting opportunities and target delivery of
SBA business development services.
Saiki unveiled the proposal at a briefing also attended by
Judith Watts, associate administrator for the Office of Minority
Small Business and Capital Ownership Development (MSB&COD). This
office directs the agency's key minority-oriented commercial
initiatives, the 8 (a) business development program and 7 (j)
management and technical assistance program.
Once the plan is approved, new 8 (a) applicants will notice
an immediate improvement from a more flexible and realistic
eligibility standard, a move intended to boost enrollment far
beyond today's level of slightly more than 4,000 firms. An
individual firm's success from that point on largely will be
decided by its own abilities and resources, coupled with business
development assistance provided by the SBA.
SEP 21 '92 17:57 ADMIN OFFICE OFC
P.3/33
DRAFT
The SEA'S participation in the awarding of federal contracts
will also be affected.
"Now," said Saiki, "all 8 (a) contracts involve the SBA
administratively, a disincentive to federal buyers looking to
negotiate quickly and directly. The new procedures will remove
the SBA from this administrative role, simplifying the process
and encouraging wider use of 8 (a) throughout the federal system."
The creation of a federal government-wide small
disadvantaged business (SDB) procurement program with mandated
goals will bring about new, expanded contracting opportunities.
In conjunction with this expansion in marketplace, the SBA
proposes to do away with the requirement that 8 (a) contracts
exceeding a $3 million threshold ($5 million for manufacturing)
be competed among 8 (a) firms. The agency sees this as limiting
the 8 (a) company's opportunity to gain valuable experience
competing in this newly-created market.
Other recommendations include:
Establishing a pilot 8 (a) graduate assistance program
whereby firms that left the program and now compete
successfully in the economic mainstream mentor current
8 (a) participants;
Targeting 7 (j) management and technical assistance to
8 (a) firms in four specific areas, marketing
assistance, proposal preparation, accounting systems
and industry specific technical expertise; and
Replacing the two stages of 8 (a) participation (a four-
year development and five-year [maximum] transition
phase) with only one level and offer all program
benefits to all participants throughout the nine-year
term.
###
Dan --
Spoke with Richard Allen of Ladd Furniture, Inc.
HP Box 3
High Point, NC 27261
VP met with him and other furniture manufacturers a month or so
ago. Mr. Allen didn't remember exactly when. I'll try to
find out from VP's office.
Medium-sized business; approx. 140 employees in High Point
They have the biggest trouble with EPA/environment regs.
There have been increases in the amount of reporting and they
have had to add new staff just to keep up on the reading of
the new regs, etc. This is not the kind of job creation we
are looking for. We want to invest in new ideas, new
technologies, human ingenuity, etc., not paper-pushing.
The forms are complicated and take up way too much time. He
feels businesses should be concentrating on doing business
and selling their product, not filling out form after form
after form.
He is a firm believer that business needs to take responsibility,
not have government mandate everything.
Example of EPA reg. abuses: Furniture manufacturers currently
have the capability to reduce emissions (sprays, enamels,
etc.). However, they know that the government is going to
issue a reg. that will tell them to reduce emissions by 50%
of what they are emitting now. Their theory is why cut now
and lower our base of emissions, SO that we'll have to cut
50% of that lower number, when we can stay where we are and
wait for the reg to tell us what to do.
fill time job
1
Carol --
I'll call you from the road monday. please dig up what you can
in the way of local color.
thanks dmcg
gender gap issue
479- 7060
14
September 20, 1992
MEMORANDUM FOR BOB ZOELLICK
FROM:
DAN MC GROARTY
SUBJECT:
SMALL BUSINESS SPEECH
I've attached a draft, along with copies of the outline
prepared by Roger Porter, and the North Carolina information
supplied by Richard Billmeyer.
I've also provided copies of this draft to Roger Porter,
Steve Provost and Dennis Ross. I will be at a wedding in
Warrenton, Virginia from 2 p.m. today on.
CK Billmire's sources
McGroarty/Aarhus
September 20, 1992
11:00 a.m.
[sb]
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: SMALL BUSINESS INITIATIVES EVENT
Greensboro decrea, NORTH CAROLINA (2)
A
SEPTEMBER 23, 1992
TIME -- TBD
Thank you,
,
for those kind words.
[Acknowledgements/local color. ]
I've come here to [....] Greensboro to talk about small business -- to
those the Triad Business Community
drive home the fact that businesses like [event site?] generate
the hope and the pride and the jobs that hold America together.
x
America's economy is working its way through a period of
profound change. You see it here in North Carolina, just the way
you do all across the country. Many of our larger companies have
retrenched and restructured -- and I know those changes have been
difficult for many working Americans. But America's small
businesses have shown staying power -- creating new products by
the thousands -- and new jobs by the hundreds of thousands.
Let me give you one statistic that will drive home just what
X
I mean. In the 1980s, the number of workers employed by Fortune
500 companies actually dropped -- by over 3 million. XXXX
X
morethan
same decade, small businesses boomed -- adding 12 and a half
Timams
million new jobs. //
gotso opedin
x64108A
The simple fact is, small businesses are often the first to
adapt to a changing world -- the first to turn change to
WSJ (8/10/92)
2
advantage -- the force at the leading edge of economic recovery.
//
That's why it's critical that we do all we can to strengthen
small businesses -- remove obstacles that stand in their way, and
create incentives that unleash America's entrepreneurial genius.
Helping small business reach for its dreams is key to my
Agenda for America Renewal. / I've set a goal -- to make
America the world's first $10 trillion dollar economy in the
early years of the 21st Century. And when we get to that goal -
-not if, but when -- it won't be the chairmen of the Fortune 500
we have to thank -- it will be the men and women who run the
small businesses that power America.
X
X
DonnaHarper,
Right now, small business employs over half our workforce.
X
X
X
X
X
Small business creates two-thirds of the new jobs in America.
2056
Small business is a hothouse for innovation, risk-taking, new
ideas -- the engine of entrepreneurial capitalism that pulls this
economy forward. //
I know -- because I've been there. I've run a small
business -- built it from the ground up, with a lot of help from
partners and employees. I know what it's like to sweat out a
deal, shop for credit, stay up late worrying how you're going to
meet the next payroll. And I've even had the ulcers to prove it.
And let me tell you: I happen to think that meeting a
payroll isn't a bad qualification for being President of the
United States. //
3
I want to focus today on what government can do to help
small businesses: Not to create a Washington-run industrial
policy -- what my opponent calls euphemistically a "partnership"
between business and government -- not to put a new bureaucracy
of government planners in the business of picking winners and
losers -- but to help America do what it does best: to make way
for the American entrepreneur, the little guy with the big idea.
I've put together a program to strengthen small business --
a program that will work, because it understands how small
businesses work. Here's what it does:
X
First, our program will help small businesses get started.
Here's the fact: Almost half of all new businesses literally
SBA
SBA
begin at home -- when entrepreneurs convert their own "nest eggs"
Econ
Annual Reports
into capital. Germany doesn't tax capital gains at America's
205-6530
Julie
punitive rates -- neither does Japan. If we want to compete and
weeks
win, it's time to reward the risk-takers who turn their dreams
into tomorrow's jobs. It's time to cut the tax on capital gains.
X
Because we know you've got to crawl before you can walk,
we're also helping small businesses with an aggressive micro-
X
Betsy
loan program -- from a few hundred dollars up to $25,000 dollars
anderson
X2774
at the critical early stages when new ventures are X most
vulnerable.
6/2/92 announced
Finally, I am announcing today a new initiative aimed at
smoothing the way for small business start-ups -- by allowing
entrepreneurs to expense $2500 dollars of their start-up costs.))
4
That's how we'll help entrepreneurs get their ideas off the
ground -- and their businesses up and running.
Part two of our small business program is to help existing
small businesses find credit. / I don't have to tell the small
businessmen here today: The credit crunch has hit small business
hard. That's why we've been working with bankers and regulators
across the country to ease the crunch -- free up the flow of
credit to [companies like yours]. // Regulatory reform by the
Security and Exchange Commission has made it easier for small
businesses to raise capital through stock offerings -- to help
growing firms get from Main Street to Wall Street. And I've had
the Small Business Administration working overtime to help
X
credit-starved businesses. This year alone, we've increased by
X
X
X
Betsy Anderson x2774
more than 50 percent the loan guarantees offered through SBA --
Betsy
more than $6 billion for men and women with good ideas -- who
POLICY
X
X
want to turn those dreams into jobs. //
9/92
But today, I want to take our efforts one step farther. / I
want to announce a series of new steps we can take to help cut
the cost of capital: Steps to simplify pension rules for small
businesses / to increase expensing limits and exempt small
businesses from capitalization requirements meant for bigger
businesses / to grant relief from the Alternative Minimum Tax for
active investors in small businesses / to institute new
inflation-adjusted inventory accounting rules / and finally, to
eliminate capital gains on newly-issues small business stock.
5
Third, we've got to help small business hire new workers and
increase productivity. / Small businesses -- like every
employer in America -- will benefit from education reforms like
America 2000 -- from our expanded job training initiatives / from
enterprise zones / and legal reform that ends the sky's-the-
limit lawsuits that can drive a small business into bankruptcy.
But even all of that is not enough. We've got to target special
assistance for small business.
That's why I support aggressive new export promotion
programs to help small businesses crack new markets abroad -- and
Betsy74 anderson
I am supporting
x
it's why I've ordered a 100% increase in federal R&D funds to
help small businesses generate the technologies of tomorrow.
Fourth, we've got to free small businesses from the tangle
of red tape and regulation. [[NORTH CAROLINA EXAMPLE OF
David
McIntosh
EXCESSIVE REGULATION STRANGLING SMALL BUSINESS. ]] That's why, in
January of this year, I ordered a freeze on federal regulations.
It's the reason I've gone forward without waiting for Congress to
institute a series of tax reforms -- to streamline and simplify
small business's tax reporting. You work long and hard for your
success. You should spend your time doing business -- not doing
paperwork.
And we've drawn the line against a Congress that's learned
to say, "why pass a law -- when you can saddle America's
businesses with another new federal mandate -- and let them
figure out how to pay for it. "
9 million full-time self-employed
5.5 million part time employment
6
Fifth and finally, we've got to help small business provide
DonnaHarper SBA
for its workers. / To help the 15 million Americans who are
self-employed, I want to raise the deductible for health
Hanns
X
X
insurance from 25 to 100 percent. I want to reform health
insurance -- give small companies the same advantage bigger
companies get when they shop for health care coverage, by
encouraging small companies to pool together to buy insurance.
We want to create tax incentives to help small businesses
offer their employees family leave -- not simply slap a mandate
on small businesses' back. And we want to expand small
businesses' ability to offer the portable pensions people will
need in a dynamic economy. //
Taken together, that's a strong package -- a comprehensive
program -- to give real-world help, right now, to the small
businesses that make this economy grow. //
What about my opponent? What's his plan for small
businesses? Well, the difference couldn't be sharper.
You see, I see small business as the backbone of the
American economy. Mr. Clinton sees small business as the goose
that lays the Golden Eggs. //
Bill Clinton's got big plans for bigger government -- and to
pay for it, he's got a tax plan for almost every day of the week:
X
Start with $150 billion in new taxes. Add a 7 percent payroll
Richard Billmite
tax to finance the government-takeover of health care. Add
fax
another payroll tax for training -- and a tax on foreign
X
7
companies operáting here in the U.S. and employing American X
X
XXX
X
Richard
they
workers. // I tell you, it's taxing just talking about it.
X
X
863-8688 Reiser,RNC
Now, my opponent says, yes, he wants to raise taxes -- but
X
X
X
X
only on the top 2 percent. Standard soak the rich rhetoric --
but what he won't tell you is this: two out of every X three X
X
people hit by Bill Clinton's X tax hike would be small businessmen
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
owners
Reiscribe Marty RNC
x
X
or family farmers. These folks aren't millionaires -- they're
Mom and Pop, Inc. //
Take a look at what Bill Clinton's tax plan would mean for
X
small businesses right here in North Carolina. / If you're like
Richard Billimine
X
X
the typical small business, you operate with a profit margin of
ANY
about 2 percent. Your market is too competitive for you to pass
on costs by raising prices -- you've already cut costs to the
bone.
So when Bill Clinton's new taxes kick in, you've got a tough
choice. His payroll taxes alone amount to 4 to 5 percent of your X
X
X
X
Richard
X
fax
operating expenses. That's your profit margin -- and then some. X
So here's your choice: you can board up the windows -- or
you can get out the pink slips.
I want to invite Bill Clinton and his advisors to follow
along for a little "business math." Just over half of all small x
businesses with between X 10 and 20 employees have annual sales X of
X
x
Richard
Billmine
to
x
fax
between 500,000 and 1 million dollars. A 2% profit margin -- in
X
X
the best case -- gives that business a $20,000 profit.
X
Now, Bill Clinton's new taxes would cost that company
Richard
X
x
Billmite
between $46,000 and 56,000 in added taxes -- so after you've
not
8
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
Bichard
handed over your profit to the government, the only way to pay
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
*4)
the rest of the tax is by putting someone out of work.
//
x
X
X
x
X
X
In the case of my example, that's 2 or 3 employees -- 2 or 3
Richard
X
lessthan
x
X
X
people out of a 20-person company who lose their jobs.
Fay
Think about that. Those 2 or 3 people aren't just numbers -
- names on a payroll spreadsheet. They're real people -- friends
and neighbors -- men and women with families to feed, mortgages
to pay. //
Now, if that 2 or 3 still doesn't sound like much -- keep
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
this in mind. In North Carolina alone, 25% of all workers --
X
X
X
X
X
x
x
X
x
X
x
X
Richard Fax
638,000 people -- work in companies the same size as the one in
X
X
my example, companies that will be crippled by Bill Clinton's new
X
X
X
taxes. Across this state, North Carolina has thousands of
businesses with less than 10 employees. More than 3000 X grocery
X
X
X
X
X
x
Richard
X
X
X
2500
X
X
x
X
x
stores. More than 3000 small furniture stores. 4 out of every 5
tex
companies in the X building trades. Book stores and beauty shops /
X
X
X
X
X
x
laundries and video stores and TV repair shops: The list goes on
and on. For them, Bill Clinton's tax plan means one thing:
Misery on Main Street. //
America is a nation of small businesses -- and those small
businesses will take a big hit under Bill Clinton's tax plan.
My opponent couldn't do more damage on America's entrepreneurs if
he'd declared war on small businesses. Well, if you're like me,
you've got to say: Small business shouldn't be big-government's
piggy bank. //
9
My Agenda for American Renewal does what's good for small
business -- what's good for American jobs and American workers -
- what's right for America. //
"
Here's what Bill Clinton and the government-first crowd just
don't understand: Government can print money -- but it can't
create wealth. The great ideas that make this economy grow don't
begin in the marbled halls of some federal building back in
Washington. More great ideas -- more of our GDP -- begins at a
basement workbench, at the computer on your kitchen table, with
the savings you set aside to start a business of your own. //
America is the envy of the world: not because its
government is great -- but because its people are great. Because
the American people are builders who dream, and dreamers who
build.
We need a government that understands that fundamental fact.
A government that knows when to help -- and when to get out of
the way. My program -- my Agenda for American Renewal -- will
make the next American Century a new American Century, a time of
peace and prosperity for all. //
Thank you once again for this warm welcome -- and may God
bless the United States of America.
# # #
J
McGroarty/Aarhus
September 22, 1992
10:00 a.m.
[ncsb]
PRESIDENTIAL REMARKS: SMALL BUSINESS INITIATIVES EVENT
GREENSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA
SEPTEMBER 23, 1992
TIME: TBD
Thank you,
for those kind words.
,
[Acknowledgements, local color, etc.]
I've come here to Greensboro to talk about small business -
- to drive home the fact that businesses like [{event site?]]
that started out Joseph Koury's
generate the hope and the pride and the jobs that hold America
together. //
America's economy is working its way through a period of
profound change. You see it here in North Carolina, just the way
you do all across the country. Many of our larger companies have
retrenched and restructured -- and I know those changes have been
difficult for many working Americans. But America's small
businesses have shown staying power -- creating new products by
the thousands -- and new jobs by the millions.
Let me give you one statistic that will drive home just what
I mean. In the 1980s, the number of workers employed by Fortune
500 companies actually dropped. But in that same decade, small
businesses boomed -- adding 12 and a half million new jobs. //
The simple fact is, small businesses are often the first to
adapt to a changing world -- the first to turn change to
advantage -- the force at the leading edge of economic recovery.
That's why it's critical that we do all we can to strengthen
2
small businesses -- remove obstacles that stand in their way, and
create incentives that unleash America's entrepreneurial genius.
Helping small business reach for its dreams is key to my
Agenda for America Renewal. / I've set a goal -- to make
America the world's first $10 trillion dollar economy in the
early years of the 21st Century. And when we get to that goal -
- not if, but when -- it won't be the chairmen of the Fortune 500
we have to thank -- it will be the men and women who run the
the Triad
small businesses that power America, the men and women of [local
reference]. //
Business Community
Right now, small business employs over half our workforce.
Small business creates two-thirds of the new jobs in America.
Small business is a hothouse for innovation, risk-taking, new
ideas -- the engine of entrepreneurial capitalism that pulls this
economy forward. //
I know -- because I've been there. I've run a small
business -- built it from the ground up, with a lot of help from
partners and employees. I know what it's like to sweat out a
deal, shop for credit, stay up late worrying how you're going to
meet the next payroll. And I've even had the ulcers to prove it.
And let me tell you: I happen to think that meeting a
payroll isn't a bad qualification for being President of the
United States. //
The contrast with my opponent couldn't be clearer. He comes
at small business from a different direction. My opponent has
never worked for a business -- never. When he wasn't in
3
government, he taught lawyers. He even came to Washington -- to
the Congress -- for his summer jobs. [[That's where he gets his
international experience, by the way: Two summers in the
mailroom of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. ]]
So it shouldn't surprise you that when it comes to the
economy, my opponent thinks government should lead -- with
planners whose idea of running a business is to do whatever the
American Political Science Association thinks should be done. //
Now I believe government can play a role in helping small
business. But it is a role of support -- not the lead. Not to
put a new bureaucracy of government planners in the business of
picking winners and losers -- but to help America do what it does
best: to make way for the American entrepreneur, the little guy
with the big idea.
I've put together a program to strengthen small business --
a program that will work, because it understands how small
businesses work.
I'm releasing the full program today in a report I call
Encouraging Entrepreneurial Capitalism. That's a fancy name for
the small business savvy America is known for. Some of the ideas
are ones we've been pushing for for years -- some are new: All
of them are solid, sensible ways to strengthen small business.
Here's what it does:
First, our program will help small businesses get started.
Here's the fact: Almost Many half of all new businesses literally
begin at home -- when entrepreneurs convert their own "nest eggs"
4
into capital Germany doesn't tax capital gains at America's
punitive rates -- neither does Japan. If we want to compete and
win, it's time to reward the risk-takers who turn their dreams
into tomorrow's jobs. It's time to cut the tax on capital gains.
//
Because we know you've got to crawl before you can walk,
we're also helping small businesses with an aggressive micro-
loan program -- from a few hundred dollars up to $25,000 dollars
at the critical early stages when new ventures are most
vulnerable.
That's how we'll help entrepreneurs get their ideas off the
ground -- and their businesses up and running.
Part two of our small business program is to help existing
small businesses find credit. / Best idea in the world can't
work without capital. Entrpreneurs can't do it alone. They need
credit to set up shop and expand.
Right now, you and I know -- the credit crunch has hit small
business hard. That's why we've been working with bankers and
regulators across the country to ease the crunch -- free up the
flow of credit to companies like yours // Our regulatory
reform, for example, by the Security and Exchange Commission has
made it easier for small businesses to raise capital through
stock offerings -- to help growing firms get from Main Street to
Wall Street. /
And I've had the Small Business Administration working
overtime to help credit-starved businesses. This year alone,
5
we've increased by more than 50 percent the loan guarantees
offered through SBA -- more than $6 billion for men and women
with good ideas -- who want to turn those dreams into jobs. //
Small businesses is one of the most effective ways to brong
minority Americans into the economic mainstream. That's why just
yesterday, Pat Saiki of the S.B.A. announced our plan to
streamline our Minority Small Business program to bring economic
opportunities to thousands of new firms in cities and states
across America.
But today, I want to take our efforts one step farther. I
am proposing a 5-year, $20 billion dollar small business
initiative -- to lift tax and regulatory burdens off the back of
small business, and cut the costs of capital.
My new initiative will smooth the way for small business
start-ups -- by allowing entrepreneurs to expense $2500 dollars
of their start-up costs. And it will increase the current small
business expensing limit from $10,000 to $25,000 dollars.
It includes steps to simplify tax laws so that most small
businesses can file a one or two page tax return. / It will
eliminate all capital gains on newly-issues small business stock
-- and knock down the corporate tax rate on small businesses from
15 to 10 percent. //
Third, we've got to help small business hire new workers and
increase productivity. / Small businesses -- like every
employer in America -- will benefit from education reforms like
America 2000 -- from our expanded job training initiatives / from
6
enterprise zones / and legal reform that ends the sky's-the-
limit lawsuits that can drive a small business into bankruptcy.
But even all of that is not enough. We've got to target special
assistance for small business.
That's why I support aggressive new export promotion
programs to help small businesses crack new markets abroad, and
create new jobs here at home. / You see, in the 21st Century,
America must be not just a military superpower, but an economic
superower -- an export superpower. Right now, a fraction of
Time
American companies -- 15 percent -- account for almost all of
Adams
America's exports. We've got to open new markets for America's
small businesses -- tap their explosive potential to make new
customers not just down the street, but around the world.
Small business is already helping us pioneer new worlds --
lead the way in the bio-technology revolution. That's one key
reason I've ordered a 100% increase in federal R&D funds to help
small businesses generate the technologies of tomorrow.
Fourth, we've got to free small businesses from the tangle
of red tape and regulation. [[NORTH CAROLINA EXAMPLE OF
EXCESSIVE REGULATION STRANGLING SMALL BUSINESS. ]] That's why, in
January of this year, I ordered a freeze on federal regulations.
It's the reason I've gone forward without waiting for Congress to
institute a series of tax reforms -- to streamline and simplify
small business's tax reporting. You work long and hard for your
success. You should spend your time doing business -- not doing
paperwork.
7
And we've drawn the line against a Congress that's learned
to say, "why pass a law -- when you can saddle America's
businesses with another new federal mandate -- and let them
figure out how to pay for it.
Fifth and finally, we've got to help small business provide
for its workers. / To help the 15 million Americans who are
self-employed, I want to raise the deductible for health
insurance from 25 to 100 percent. I want to reform health
insurance -- give small companies the same advantage bigger
companies get when they shop for health care coverage, by
encouraging small companies to pool together to buy insurance.
We want to create tax incentives to help small businesses
offer their employees family leave -- not simply slap a mandate
on small businesses' back. And we want to expand small
businesses' ability to offer the portable pensions people will
need in a dynamic economy. //
Taken together, that's a strong package -- a comprehensive
program -- to give real-world help, right now, to the small
businesses that make this economy grow. //
What about my opponent? What's his plan for small
businesses? Well, the difference couldn't be sharper.
You see, I see small business as the backbone of the
American economy. Mr. Clinton sees small business as the goose
that lays the Golden Eggs. //
Bill Clinton's got big plans for bigger government -- and to
pay for it, he's got a tax plan for almost every day of the week:
8
Start with $150 billion in new taxes. A health care plan that
will lead to a 7 percent payroll tax to finance the government-
takeover of our hospitals. Add another payroll tax for training
-- and a tax on foreign companies operating here in the U.S. and
employing American workers. //
I tell you, it's taxing just talking about it.
Now, my opponent says, yes, he wants to raise taxes -- but
only on the top 2 percent. Standard "soak the rich" rhetoric --
but what he won't tell you is this: two out of every three
people hit by Bill Clinton's tax hike would be small business
owners or family farmers. These folks aren't millionaires --
they're Mom and Pop, Inc. //
Take a look at what Bill Clinton's tax plan would mean for
small businesses right here in North Carolina. / If you're like
the typical small business, you operate with a profit margin of
about 2 percent. Your market is too competitive for you to pass
on costs by raising prices -- you've already cut costs to the
bone.
So when Bill Clinton's new taxes kick in, you've got a tough
choice. His payroll taxes alone amount to 4 to 5 percent of your
operating expenses. That's your profit margin -- and then some.
So here's your choice: you can board up the windows -- or
you can get out the pink slips.
I want to invite Bill Clinton and his advisors to follow
along for a little "business math." Just over half of all small
businesses with between 10 and 20 employees have annual sales of
9
$500,000 to one million dollars. A 2% profit margin -- in the
best case -- gives that business a $20,000 profit.
Now, Bill Clinton's new taxes would cost that company
between $46,000 and $56,000 dollars -- so after you've handed
over your profit to the government, the only way to pay the rest
of the tax is by putting someone out of work. //
In the case of my example, that's 2 or 3 employees -- 2 or 3
people out of a less than 20-person company who lose their jobs.
Think about that. Those 2 or 3 people aren't just numbers -
- names on a payroll spreadsheet. They're real people -- friends
and neighbors -- men and women with families to feed, mortgages
to pay. //
Now, if that 2 or 3 still doesn't sound like much -- keep
this in mind. In North Carolina alone, 25% of all workers --
638,000 people -- work in companies the same size as the one in
my example, companies that will be crippled by Bill Clinton's new
taxes. Across this state, North Carolina has thousands of
businesses with less than 10 employees. More than 3000 grocery
stores. More than 2500 small furniture stores. 4 out of every 5
companies in the building trades. Book stores and beauty shops /
laundries and video stores and TV repair shops: The list goes on
and on. For them, Bill Clinton's tax plan means one thing:
Misery on Main Street. 11
America is a nation of small businesses -- and those small
businesses will take a big hit under Bill Clinton's tax plan.
My opponent couldn't do more damage to America's entrepreneurs if
10
he'd declared war on small businesses. / Well, if you're like
me, you've got to say: Small business shouldn't be big-
government's piggy bank. //
Take a look for a moment my approach -- and the contrast
with Bill Clinton.
I want to strengthen small businesses across America by
lowering taxes -- increasing R&D.
Bill Clinton wants to tax small businesses and small
business owners so he can give big government a raise.
I want to cut red tape, eliminate excessive regulation and
reform the ruinous legal system that's crippling this economy and
killing small businesses.
Bill Clinton wants to saddle small business with new
mandates, and he's told the trial lawyers of America he wouldn't
take away even one little loophole.
How about health care / job training / family leave?
I want to reform our health care system -- extend coverage
to all Americans, use the market to drive costs down while
keeping quality up. / Bill Clinton wants a payroll tax to
finance the government-takeover of health care.
I want to give displaced workers a voucher to uby the
training they want. Bill Clinton? He wants to put a payroll tax
on workers.
I want to use tax relief to encourage businesses to provide
workers family leave. My opponent? Well, you see the pattern.
Bill Clinton's got a "Punt, pass and kick" plan: // Punt
11
the problem over to business. Pass the costs along. And kick
the American worker -- right where he carries his wallet. //
You've got a choice in this election. A choice between two
two different philosophies -- two different directions to take
this country.
Bill Clinton puts his faith in the so-called "best and
brightest:" In the old Oxford crowd that believes government
knows best.
Well, I put my faith in the American people -- I want to see
you keep control of the decisions that really matter in life.
And when Bill Clinton says "government knows best" -- I say: You
know better. //
Let me sum it up this way: Bill Clinton is wrong for
America. And you know I'm right. //
My Agenda for American Renewal does what's good for small
business -- what's good for American jobs and American workers -
- what's right for America. //
Here's what Bill Clinton and the "government first" crowd
just don't understand: Government can print money -- but it
can't create wealth. The great ideas that make this economy grow
don't begin in the marbled halls of some federal building back in
Washington. More great ideas -- more of our GDP -- begins at a
basement workbench, at the computer on your kitchen table, with
the savings you set aside to start a business of your own. //
America is the envy of the world: not because its
government is great -- but because its people are great. Because
12
the American people are builders who dream, and dreamers who
build.
We need a government that understands that fundamental fact.
A government that knows when to help -- and when to get out of
the way. My program -- my Agenda for American Renewal -- will
make the next American Century a new American Century, a time of
peace and prosperity for all. //
Thank you once again for this warm welcome -- and may God
bless the United States of America.
# # #
Work in: Arkansas' record on small businesses? Taxes on?
CLOSE HOLD
DRAFT
Encouraging Entrepreneurial Capitalism:
Strengthening Small Business
I.
Introduction: The Challenge
Historians will record the twentieth century as the
American Century. It was in this century that the United
States first became actively engaged around the world.
Throughout this century, we have sought to advance two ideals
that have served us well for more than two hundred years.
Today, in country after country, given the choice, people
have chosen these two ideals -- democracy and free enterprise -
- as the path they want to pursue. We have just completed the
greatest mission in the lifetime of our country -- the triumph
of democratic capitalism over imperial communism.
Despite these victories in the marketplace of ideas, many
Americans are anxious about the future. Sluggish economic
growth in the United States, Europe, and in Japan has fueled
many of these concerns.
We sense the epic changes at work in the world and in the
economy, the uneasiness felt in the democracies who have served
as our partners.
For America to be safe and strong, we must move
confidently to meet the defining challenge of the 1990s: to
win the economic competition in an integrated global economy,
and provide Americans with prosperity and economic security.
We must be a military superpower, an economic superpower, and
an export superpower.
My agenda for renewal asks that we look forward -- to open
new markets, prepare our people to work, strengthen our
families, save and invest so that we can win. Our renewal
depends on economic growth -- but growth not for the few at the
expense of the many, not for the present at the expense of the
future.
In our country we have always prized an entrepreneurial
capitalism that grows from the bottom up, not the top down; a
prosperity that begins on Main Street and extends to Wall
Street -- not the other way around.
One of our great strengths is our capacity to innovate, to
adjust, to change, to redeploy our resources to their most
efficient uses. The economic future will belong to those
nations most able to innovate and adapt. Those burdened by
bigness often sacrifice quickness and agility for size.
Entrepreneurial capitalism involves creating a climate
that encourages creativity, rewards innovation, promotes
flexibility, and requires competition. Small businesses must
play a crucial part in America meeting the challenge of an
integrated world economy.
II. The Context: Role of Small Business in the Economy
Small business has long played an important role in the
U.S. economy. Small businesses, those businesses with fewer
than 500 employees, today employ more than 50 percent of the
U.S. work force.
They account for 44 percent of all sales and generate 39
percent of the GDP. Thirteen percent of our labor force --
15.6 million workers -- are self-employed.
Small businesses are a crucial element of our nation's
manufacturing sector. In 1991, 98 percent of all manufacturing
firms were small businesses -- 83 percent of all manufacturing
firms employed fewer than 50 workers.
Last year, 63 percent of all manufacturing jobs were
located in small businesses -- close to one in every five (18
percent) manufacturing jobs were in firms that employed less
than 50 workers. Between 1985 and 1991, small manufacturers
(less than 100 workers) created over 200,000 net new jobs.
III. Recognizing Our Strengths
Small business is one of the strengths of the U.S.
economy. They contribute to our economic well being in four
important respects.
First, our success in creating jobs is in large part
attributable to the strength of our small businesses. Small
business is the engine that propels the economy.
Small businesses create two thirds of our new jobs.
During the 1980s small businesses added about 12.5
million additional workers, while employment in
Fortune 500 companies actually declined.
From 1988 to 1990, small businesses created more than
3 million jobs -- the entire net increase in the
nation's job growth for that period in the private,
non-farm sector.
Second, small businesses are a catalyst for innovation --
the driving force in a dynamic economy. Small firms produce
about 2.4 times as many innovations per employee as large
firms. They have been responsible for over half (55 percent)
of the country's technical and industrial innovations since the
second World War.
Third, small businesses will enable the U.S. to become an
export superpower. Forty percent of all U.S. exporters are
small businesses. Every billion dollars in exports creates
20,000 new jobs.
Fourth, the dynamism of small business has provided an
avenue of advancement for minorities and women. During the
1980s, the number of Black-owned businesses grew by almost 40
percent, and the number of Black-owned manufacturing
establishments more than doubled from 1982 to 1987.
Likewise, the most recent Census bureau statistics show
more than 422,000 Hispanic-owned businesses nationally, an
increase of 81 percent from 1982. The rate of growth of
Hispanic-owned businesses is almost six times the rate for all
businesses. Between 1982 and 1987, the number of businesses
owned by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders rose 89.3
percent.
Women are starting businesses at twice the rate of men.
Thirty percent of all small businesses in the U.S. are owned by
women. If the trend continues, nearly 48 percent of all small
businesses will be owned by women by the turn of the century.
IV. Helping Small Businesses Get Started
My Agenda for American Renewal calls for measures to
encourage the entrepreneurial spirit of our private businesses.
We must pursue tax, economic and social policies that give
incentives for entrepreneurship, rather than discouraging it.
This is common sense. When government permits individuals
to keep the rewards of their success, they will keep trying
until they succeed. But when government exacts a higher price
for entrepreneurship, it undermines the incentive for
individuals to start new businesses and create jobs.
That is why I want to cut the capital gains tax and index
it for inflation. But in the case of small businesses, I
propose to go one step further and cut the tax on capital gains
from small business start-ups to zero. These changes would
permit small business owners to keep the economic rewards they
have earned in return for the risks they have taken, giving
them a greater incentive to undertake those risks.
Some potential entrepreneurs are deterred by the high
initial costs of starting a company. Under our tax laws, they
can only deduct those expenses over many years. I propose
changing the tax laws to allow individuals to deduct up to
$2,500 of those start-up costs in the first year, when those
costs hit small business owners the hardest. ($0.5 billion)
These economic incentives should help. But sometimes
direct financial assistance is required, particularly for those
who may be unable to obtain credit to start a business from
traditional financing institutions.
In order to fill that need, the Small Business
Administration started a $15 million program earlier this year
to give unsecured loans in small amounts -- up to $25,000 -- to
budding entrepreneurs or small businesses that would like to
expand.
Finally, my Administration is seeking new ways to help
those who might wish to start a small business. The Small
Business Administration and the Department of Housing and Urban
Development, working in partnership, recently agreed to start a
pilot program in Atlanta to assist public housing residents and
other low-income residents in the neighborhood to start their
own businesses.
Under the program, the SBA and HUD provide managerial,
technical and financial assistance to residents who are
interested in starting or expanding a business to provide
services for the housing project or its residents, including
maintenance and custodial services, appliance repairs, security
services, lawn care, child care or transportation services.
V.
Helping Small Businesses Get Access to Credit and Reduce
the Cost of Capital
Small businesses need adequate access to credit.
Entrepreneurs can't do it alone. They need credit to set up
shop and then to expand. They are not looking for a handout,
but a chance to give a good return on investment.
This year we have authorized a record $6 billion in loan
authority to permit the Small Business Administration to
guarantee small business loans. This is 50 percent above the
1991 level.
I know that many small businesses have had a tough time
borrowing. We have been fighting the credit crunch in every
possible way. First, we worked with the Federal Reserve Board
to lower interest rates. Then we met with nearly every bank
regulator in the country, and told them that banks must be able
to lend to good borrowers. We made thirty separate regulatory
changes to remove federal barriers to sound lending.
Government overregulation should not stand in the way of
creating new businesses and jobs.
We took the message to the banks as well. Last week
Secretary Brady met with bank CEOs from around the country and
urged them to do more lending and less investing in government
securities. Banks must live up to their responsibilities.
Savings must be plowed back into the community to create jobs.
We have directed bank examiners to conduct their valuation
of real estate based on the ability to generate income, not on
its liquidation value.
Then we took the message to Wall Street. Working with
the Securities and Exchange Commission, we made it easier for
small companies to sell shares by eliminating the paperwork
requirements that drive up the cost of getting investors.
Winston Churchill once said to America: "Give us the tools
and we will finish the job." This is the cry of entrepreneurs.
We hear your voice. Every day we are pushing aside the
barriers that stand in the way of building your business.
If small business is to accelerate its role as an engine
for creating jobs we must bring down the cost of capital by
reducing costly tax and regulatory burdens. Our task is two
fold: reduce capital costs directly and reduce the paperwork
burden that fall so heavily on small businesses.
I am proposing a five-year $20 billion initiative to
reduce the cost of capital for our small businesses. This
initiative includes six elements:
Reducing the corporate tax rate for small
businesses from 15 percent to 10 percent. ($5.5
billion)
Increasing the current expensing limit from $10,000
to $25,000; ($8.4 billion)
Granting Alternative Minimum Tax relief for
preferences arising from active participation in a
small business; ($1.7 billion)
Eliminating capital gains taxes on newly issued small
business stock; ($0.7 billion)
Allowing small businesses to elect inflation-adjusted
inventory accounting rules; ($2.6 billion)
Exempting small business from uniform capitalization
and long-term contract rules. ($0.3 billion)
Enhancing and simplifying pension rules for small
business. ($0.9 billion)
VI. Helping Small Businesses Expand Employment and Increase
Productivity
Small businesses today face a new competitive environment
-- challenged not only by competitors in their neighborhood,
their city and throughout the Nation, but also by competing
firms from around the world. In the new global economy, each
of our companies -- from the largest to the smallest -- must
have the tools they need not only to compete, but to win.
The ability of small businesses to grow and compete in the
global economy depends on their ability to innovate, increase
productivity, attract and retain highly-skilled workers and
find new markets for their products. The Federal government
can do its part by encouraging investment in R&D, supporting
efforts to improve the quality of our workforce, reforming our
legal system and opening foreign markets for American products
and services.
A.
Supporting Innovative Research
In order to be the world's economic leader tomorrow, we
must invest in research and development and foster new
technologies today. That is why I want to make the research
and experimentation tax credit permanent. This credit, which
was adopted in 1981 to encourage increased private R&D
spending, has been renewed periodically for a year or two at a
time. It is time to create predictable rules small businesses
can count on when making R&D investment decisions by renewing
it permanently.
Our Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program
fosters the pioneering spirit of small businesses in research
and development activities. Under the SBIR program, eleven
major Federal agencies set aside a percentage of their R&D
funds for contracts with small firms.
Under my Administration, the portion of the Federal R&D
budget set aside for small business has doubled from 1.25
percent to 2.5 percent. Since the program began ten years ago,
more than $2.2 billion in Federal R&D funding has been directed
to small businesses.
One of the goals of the SBIR program is to encourage small
firms to develop products and technologies that have commercial
applications. At least one in four SBIR award winners has
achieved commercial sales or expects that commercial sales will
occur.
B.
Improving the Quality of Our Workforce
In the 21st Century, our greatest national resource will
be our people. Materials, machines, and methods are also
important, but it is the American worker who will remain the
key to our economic security. Since the workplace of the 21st
Century will be constantly changing, we need a workforce that
is skilled and adaptable.
Those industries showing the fastest rate of growth in
employment in the decade between 1977-1987 included many small-
business-dominated industries that require highly-trained
workers: engineering, architectural, business and recreation
services and automotive repair. Those growing industries with
a skilled workforce will have an advantage in the new global
marketplace.
That is what my American 2000 program is all about. It
includes four crucial elements. The first is accountability.
Our students can't beat world class competition if they can't
meet world class standards. We are moving ahead with the
development of these standards in math, science, English,
history, geography, arts and civics. And we need voluntary
national achievement tests to measure the progress of our
students in meeting these standards.
The second is innovation. We need break-the-mold New
American Schools that will transform our classrooms by
developing and implementing the latest in technology and ideas
for teaching our students.
The third is flexibility. We need to give schools the
flexibility to become educational entrepreneurs --to figure out
the best ways to motivate our children, use technology, include
parents and involve new types of teachers.
The fourth is competition and choice. We must give
parents the ability to choose which school their children will
attend -- public, private or religious.
We must prepare workers for the prospect of changing jobs
and learning new skills many times throughout the course of a
productive life. In January 1992, I announced a plan to
streamline the Federal job training system through "one-stop
shopping" in every community. Experience has demonstrated that
the most effective training and placement services are those
closely developed with local employers through private industry
councils. That way the training is designed to develop skills
that employers know they will need.
My expanded job training proposal has three key features:
(1) universal coverage, so all dislocated workers will have
access to basic transition assistance and training support; (2)
skill grant vouchers of up to $3000 to help meet the costs of
adding new skills and training; and (3) a tripling of the
resources currently devoted to training and worker adjustment,
an allocation of $10 billion over five years.
I have also proposed a specially-targeted Youth Skills
Initiative. The Initiative includes creation of a new Youth
Training Corps to provide economically and socially
disadvantaged young people with intensive vocational training,
and a National Youth Apprenticeship Program to provide skills
training for young people not planning to attend college.
C. Reforming Our Legal System
America has suffered a civil litigation explosion. Over
the past 30 years, Federal lawsuits have almost tripled.
Instead of being fast, fair and affordable, our civil justice
system is slow, expensive, and putting us at a global
disadvantage.
The cost of litigation affects businesses of every size.
Long delays in resolving disputes waste valuable judicial
resources, force early settlement by those who cannot afford to
wait, discourage those who have meritorious suits, and
encourage frivolous suits by those who hope to leverage unjust
settlements. High punitive damage awards are passed on to
consumers through higher prices, job cuts, higher insurance,
and fewer new products.
My product liability reform legislation confronts the
trial lawyers head on. I want to stop wide variation among
states' product liability rules; stop important products from
being kept off the market; stop excessive litigation costs with
more money going to lawyers than to injured consumers; cut
excessive insurance rates; and end excessive consumer costs.
My "Access to Justice Act of 1992" is intended to restore
fairness and efficiency to the nation's civil justice system
through: alternatives to Federal civil trials such as
alternative dispute resolution; incentives for pre-litigation
settlement, including pre-complaint notification; and a "loser
pays" rule requiring the loser to pay the winner's legal fees
in suits involving Federal diversity jurisdiction.
We also need to continue our work with the States to
encourage fundamental change at the State and local level.
D. Expanding and Opening Foreign Markets
America is an exporting nation. In 1991, we regained the
position of the world's number one exporter. Even more
impressive, a relatively small percentage of American firms are
responsible for most U.S. exports. Fifteen percent of U.S.
firms account for nearly 85 percent of U.S. exports.
Small American businesses represent an immense, largely
untapped source of export capacity. Today, small businesses
have begun to see the potential that lies in selling their
goods and services to eager markets abroad. My Administration
has been active in making that dream a reality.
Through the programs of the Small Business Administration
(SBA) and the Department of Commerce, we have provided
information, counseling, training and even financing to
thousands of small businesses who are dealing for the first
time with the challenges of the international marketplace. The
Department of Commerce has held over thirty international trade
conferences and seminars across the country to work with small
businesses, to provide information they need to market their
products overseas, and to identify U.S. government programs and
sources of financing that can help them get started. In
addition, the Commerce Department's Matchmaker program has
introduced hundreds of small businesses to foreign markets,
arranging for them to meet directly with potential foreign
buyers for their products.
The SBA has encouraged small businesses to take advantage
of its Export Revolving Line of Credit program. This special
pilot project provides a revolving working capital line of
credit to help small manufacturers bridge the gap between
receipt of orders of their goods and receipt of payment.
Export loans under the Line of Credit program jumped from $4.85
million in 1990 to over $26 million in 1991. In the first
three quarters of 1992, the SBA extended $28 million in loans
to small exporters under this program.
All SBA loans to exporters increased from $42 million in
1990 to $123 million in 1991, with an additional $195 million
in loans during the first three quarters of 1992.
Of course, it is the private sector that must lead the
charge in taking advantage of opportunities to market American
products abroad, but where government can help in opening
markets and making those first steps a little easier we will
continue to do SO.
E. Creating Enterprise Zones
Our inner cities and rural areas suffer from a lack of
economic opportunities for their residents. In order to entice
individuals to establish small businesses in these areas, I
have proposed creating enterprise zones. Workers employed by
enterprises in the zone would be eligible for a tax credit on
wages. Inner city entrepreneurs starting businesses and small
investors who start or purchase businesses located in
enterprise zones would be entitled to deduct up to $50,000 on
their personal income taxes each year, and would not be taxed
on capital gains resulting from their investment.
These measures will promote entrepreneurship and job
creation in economically distressed urban and rural
communities.
VII. Clearing Away the Regulatory Maze
If small businesses are to thrive and prosper, they must
be free to compete without the burden of unnecessary and
restrictive Federal regulation. We are working to create a
business environment in which regulations addressing legitimate
health and safety concerns are balanced with the need to
strengthen economic growth and job creation.
In my State of the Union Address last January, I
announced, and have since extended through August 28, 1993, a
regulatory reform initiative which places a moratorium on new
Federal regulations that stifle economic growth. I also
instructed Federal agencies to look for ways to modify existing
regulations that impose a special economic burden on small
business.
In addition, we have undertaken several reforms to reduce
the costs and burdens imposed on small businesses in complying
with the Federal tax system.
A.
Reducing the Costs of the Payroll Tax System
Last May my Administration announced several initiatives
that will reduce administrative costs for the more than five
million employers who must report employment taxes. The
reforms will:
Simplify the Payroll Tax Deposit System. The
Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and Department of the
Treasury will publish a proposed regulation that will
enable as many as 75 percent of all employers to make
payroll tax deposits once-a-month, replacing the
current rules which require many employers to make
deposits as often as twice a week. Larger employers
can deposit payroll taxes on a fixed day of the week,
depending on the payroll date.
These simplifications will reduce substantially the
costs to employers, particularly small businesses, of
complying with payroll tax regulations. In addition,
these changes are expected to reduce payroll tax
penalties by more than 20 percent.
Simplify the Reporting of Federal Employment Taxes.
The IRS is developing a simplified new form, Form
941EZ, that is expected to reduce substantially the
compliance burdens of more than 3.5 million small
employers. The new form, which the IRS anticipates
will be available by the first quarter of 1994, will
eliminate information that is ordinarily relevant
only to large businesses.
The development of Form 941EZ follows other IRS
initiatives designed to simplify forms for small
businesses. In 1990, the IRS introduced a simplified
version of the form for reporting Federal
unemployment taxes. This new form is now used by
approximately 700,000 small employers at an estimated
annual savings of up to 10 million taxpayer hours.
Enable Employers to Deposit Payroll Taxes
Electronically. Last year, employers filed over 80
million paper coupons to accompany Federal payroll
tax deposits of almost $850 billion. The IRS is
testing a program to allow employers to make payroll
tax contributions directly to a designated Treasury
account. This experimental, voluntary program has
been made available to employers in South Carolina,
Florida and Atlanta, Georgia.
Establish a Single Wage Reporting System.
Traditionally, employers must file employment tax
forms for each employee with the IRS, the Social
Security Administration, and State and local tax
agencies. The IRS, Social Security Administration
and the Department of Labor recently agreed to
develop jointly a new Single Wage Reporting System.
The new system would require only one filing, thereby
saving substantial administrative costs. The Federal
agencies will work closely with State organizations
in refining and implementing this system.
Offer an On-Line Tax Identification Number Matching
Service. The IRS plans to establish a service to
allow employers to verify employees' tax
identification numbers (such as a social security
number) through a telephone call. This service will
eliminate an employer's need to engage in burdensome
paperwork and correspondence with the IRS. The IRS
anticipates that this program will be made available
to all employers in the 1993.
B.
Reducing Other Tax-Related Burdens
We are also working to reduce the burdens on small
businesses in complying with other aspects of the Federal tax
system. These reforms will allow:
Deductibility of Preparation Fees. On April 1, 1992,
the IRS released a ruling allowing more than 16
million sole proprietors, including farmers, to
deduct business-related tax preparation fees as a
business expense rather than as a limited itemized
deduction.
Joint Federal-State Filing. The IRS is working with
States on a pilot program for the joint electronic
filing of Federal and State tax returns. In 1992,
the IRS implemented this program an a State-wide
basis in South Carolina and on a more limited basis
in six other States. The IRS expects to add
additional States during the coming year.
Participation in Educational Initiatives for Small
Businesses. In the past year, the IRS has informally
contacted over 150,000 small businesses having
difficulty complying with Federal tax deposit
requirements. The IRS is now working with these
taxpayers, outside the formal audit and enforcement
context, to address compliance concerns. In
addition, during Fiscal Year 1991 the IRS conducted
over 2,400 Small Business Tax Education Workshops and
seminars which were attended by more than 80,000
executives.
VIII.
Helping Small Businesses Provide for Their Workers
In order to attract and retain good workers, small
businesses need to be able to afford to provide the benefits
that will give their employees economic security. Three key
areas of concern to many workers are health benefits, family
leave policies and pension benefits.
A. Affordable Health Care for Small Businesses and the
Self-Employed
Our current health care system provides high quality,
high-tech medicine, but at an unacceptable price: spending has
increased, at a rate two to three times the rest of the economy;
thirty-four million Americans have no health insurance and
millions more are afraid to change jobs for fear of losing
their health insurance.
My comprehensive program to reform our health care system
includes provisions that encourage small businesses to reduce
their health insurance costs by pooling their purchasing power.
By joining together to form Health Insurance Networks, small
employers can have the same market clout and market
sophistication of the biggest players in the health care
marketplace. Group purchasing can reduce health insurance
costs by as much as 16 percent through economies of scale,
lower administrative costs and greater leverage to negotiate
better rates with insurers.
Small employers also face the possibility of skyrocketing
insurance premiums, or the inability to obtain any health
insurance at all, if even one employee is seriously ill. My
plan guarantees insurability so that people with "preexisting"
illnesses cannot be denied a job or health coverage on the job.
Our health care plan guarantees affordable coverage
through a two-phase process. In the short term, we will limit
the difference in premiums that an insurer may charge to groups
with different health risks, so that no employer has to pay
astronomical insurance premiums. In the next phase, we will
create risk pools both for small businesses and for individuals
and families receiving tax credits for health insurance.
Health plans insuring a sicker than average population would
receive a net transfer from the risk pool while other insurers
will be net payers into the pool.
My plan will also benefit the self-employed, permitting
them to deduct 100 percent of their health care insurance
premiums as opposed to the 25 percent they currently are
permitted to deduct. ($5.0 billion) This is fair and treats
them similarly to other businesses.
I believe we can provide access to affordable health care
for all Americans, while preserving choice for patients and
their families in selecting doctors, hospitals, health care
programs, and employment. My approach relies on the private
sector to deliver health care services. But I would make the
market work for us by enhancing competition, which will cut
costs.
B. Incentives for Family Leave Policies
A growing number of families have two wage-earners.
As a result, it is more difficult for individuals to balance
the demands of their job with the need to care for a seriously
ill or injured family member, or to take time off to have a
child or adopt one.
Employers may face significant costs from lost production,
lost business opportunities, or other costs as the result of
extended employee absences. These costs are particularly high
for small and medium businesses that may not be able easily to
shift employees to cover for the absent worker or to hire a
temporary replacement. These smaller companies are also more
likely to experience severe economic consequences if they do
not quickly replace absent workers.
Since employers frequently must place limits on employee
absences due to the economic costs of providing leave, some
employees find themselves faced with choosing between their
employment and the serious medical or personal needs of their
families.
I propose to provide tax incentives to encourage
businesses that employ fewer than 500 employees to adopt
flexible leave policies related to childbirth, adoption or
serious family health problems. Small employers who provide
family leave to their employees would be eligible for a tax
credit of 20 percent of the cash wages that the employer
provided (or would have provided) to the employee during the
period of family leave, up to a maximum of $100 a day. The
maximum credit per employee would be $1, 200 per year. The
employer must continue to provide health benefits and other
employment protection and benefits to employees on family leave
and must provide leave on a nondiscriminatory basis. ($3.1
billion)
C.
Retirement Security
Many Americans rely on their pension to provide them with
a secure source of income during their retirement years. But
many employees of small businesses are not so fortunate. Only
24 percent of small firm employees have pension coverage; the
rest -- some 26 million individuals -- have no pension at all.
Even those employees with pensions often lose accrued
benefits as retirement income when they change jobs prior to
retirement age. Current law gives workers the incentive to
cash in their benefits -- get a lump-sum payment -- rather than
to roll the money over into another retirement plan or an IRA.
I am determined to turn those incentives around -- to make
it easy for workers to make their pensions portable and take
the pension benefits they have earned in one job to the next.
Earlier this year, I was proud to sign into law a bill that
permits workers to transfer their accrued pension benefits from
their old job directly into an IRA or their new employer's
pension plan, if that plan accepts transfers. The new law also
imposes a 20 percent mandatory withholding penalty on lump-sum
payments of pension benefits that are not transferred directly
to a new retirement account. By encouraging preservation of
retirement savings, we can ensure a more secure future for
retiring workers.
I also want to help the millions of employees without
pensions by creating a new, simplified retirement program for
small businesses, and by allowing State and local governments
and tax-exempt organizations to establish 401 (k) retirement
plans. At the same time, we will simplify the rules for
administering retirement plans. By reducing administrative
costs, more small companies and organizations will be able to
afford to provide pensions for their employees.
IX. Two Paths
We stand at a crossroads where two paths diverge in
markedly different directions. They represent competing
conceptions of the course our country should pursue.
Taxes
One path promises strengthening America's small businesses
through reducing the burden of taxes in order to stimulate
investment, research and development, and economic activity.
It would increase expensing for investments in equipment, help
businesses get started, and reduce capital gains to encourage
risk-taking.
The other path relies on substantial increases in taxes on
small business -- taxes on so-called "high income" individuals,
three quarters of whom have income from small business activity
or family farms; payroll taxes to pay for health care; payroll
taxes for training, all of which would drain profits, reduce
investment, and restrain the growth of jobs.
Regulatory Burden
One path promises a comprehensive program to simplify and
ease the burden of regulations on small businesses and to
eliminate those that are unnecessary. It would modify existing
regulations that impose a special economic burden on small
business while fending off expensive new mandates. It would
reform our product liability laws and civil justice system to
reduce the cost of insurance to small businesses and the hidden
tax of needless litigation.
The other path relies on government mandates and
regulations as the appropriate means for extensive government
intervention in the economy and accepts our current
liability laws and civil justice system as a inevitable
consequence of doing business in America.
Health Care
One path promises assisting those who work for small
businesses by helping these businesses secure access to
affordable health insurance, by permitting the self-employed to
deduct the health insurance premiums they pay as other
businesses do, and by providing credits and deductions for
those who need it in order to purchase health insurance.
The other path relies on a mandated play-or-pay health
care scheme that effectively amounts to a doubling of the
payroll tax for most small businesses and that would quickly
cascade into ever more government provided health care.
Family Leave
One path promises to expand family leave to small
businesses by providing tax credits to offset the costs of
family and medical leave while leaving decision making and
responsibility to employers and employees.
The other path relies on a government mandate that
excludes employees of the smallest businesses and imposes a
hidden tax on employees of medium-sized businesses.
Access to Credit
One path promises a concerted effort to keep interest
rates low and to facilitate the flow of credit to small
businesses. It would reduce the cost of capital to small
businesses so that they can make needed investments to expand
their capacity and increase their productivity.
The other path relies on government direction of
additional resources to make investments in selected
industries.
Worker Training
One path promises to revolutionize education and job
training while providing worker adjustment assistance for all
dislocated workers.
The other path would mandate worker training while imposes
what amount to a 1.5 percent payroll tax on small business.
At bottom we face a choice between change that trusts
people and change that relies on greater government
intervention in managing and directing economic activity and
resources. It is a choice worth considering carefully as we
prepare for the next American century.
Per !/ from R Porter
9/19/92 2pm
Encouraging Entrepreneurial Capitalism:
Strengthening Small Business
I.
Introduction: The Challenge
Having won the Cold War and successfully championed
democracy and free enterprise around the globe, we now
face a great challenge -- how to compete successfully with in
an integrated global economy, and provide Americans
prosperity and economic security.
II. The Context: Role of Small Business in the Economy
Small business has long played an important role in the
U.S. economy.
Small businesses (i.e. less than 500 employees) today
employ more than 50 percent of the U.S. work force.
(Need to check this figure as to whether it is nearly
or more than 50 percent. CK says nearly.)
They account for 44 percent of all sales and generate
39 percent of the GDP.
Over one-tenth (13 percent) of the labor force --
15.6 million workers -- are self-employed. (This
includes part-time self-employment)
Small businesses are a crucial element of our nation's
manufacturing sector.
In 1991, 98 percent of all manufacturing firms were
small businesses -- 83 percent of all manufacturing
firms employed fewer than 50 workers.
Last year, 63 percent of all manufacturing jobs were
located in small businesses -- close to one in every
five (18 percent) manufacturing jobs were in firms
that employed less than 50 workers.
Between 1985 and 1991, small manufacturers (less than
100 workers) created over 200,000 net new jobs.
III. Recognizing Our Strengths
Our success in creating jobs is in large part attributable
to the strength of our small businesses. Small business
is the engine that propels the economy.
Small businesses create two thirds of our new jobs.
During the 1980's small businesses added about 12.5
million additional workers, while the Fortune 500
companies' employment actually declined by 3.1
million jobs.
From 1988 to 1990, small businesses created more than
3 million jobs -- the entire net increase in the
nation's job growth for that period in the private,
non-farm sector.
The SBA estimates that 71 percent of future
employment in the fastest growing industries (e.g.
medical care, business services and the environment)
is likely to come from small businesses.
Small businesses are a catalyst for innovation -- the
driving force in a dynamic economy.
Much of the innovation in our country comes from
small businesses. Small firms produce about 2.4
times as many innovations per employee as large
firms.
They have been responsible for over half (55 percent)
of the country's technical and industrial innovations
since the second World War.
Small businesses will enable the U.S. to become an export
superpower.
Forty percent of all U.S. exporters are small
businesses.
Every billion dollars in exports creates 26,000 new
jobs.
The dynamism of small business has provided an avenue for
advancement for minorities and women who have benefitted
enormously from the growth of small businesses.
During the 1980s, the number of Black-owned
businesses grew by almost 40 percent, from just over
300,000 to 424,000.
The number of Black-owned manufacturing businesses
3
more than doubled from 1982 to 1987. (3,707 to 8,004)
The most recent Census bureau statistics show more
than 422,000 Hispanic-owned businesses nationally, an
increase of 81 percent from 1982.
The number of Hispanic-owned businesses rose 80.5
percent from 1982 to 1987. This rate of growth is
almost six times the rate for all businesses (14
percent). From 233,975 in 1982 to 422,373 in 1987.
Between 1982 and 1987, the number of businesses owned
by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders rose 89.3
percent.
Themal
Women are starting businesses at twice the rate of
&
men.
30 percent of all small businesses in the U.S. are
owned by women. If the trend continues, nearly 48
percent of all small businesses will be owned by
women by the turn of the century.
The total number of businesses owned by women
increased about 58 percent from 1982 to 1987. This
rate of growth is more than four times the rate for
all businesses (14 percent).
IV. Guiding Principles
Government's first economic responsibility is to
create an environment that stimulates
entrepreneurship and employment in the private
sector.
-
This means providing macroeconomic policies that
will produce stable prices, and predictable
rules so that individuals and businesses can
plan with certainty.
Government's second economic responsibility is to
provide opportunity for all citizens to acquire the
skills needed to become productive, contributing
members of the society.
Government's third economic responsibility is to
provide appropriate incentives to encourage
innovation, foster economic activity, and provide
economic security without imposing inflexible
mandates and regulations that discourage
entrepreneurship or the efficient allocation of
4
resources.
Government's fourth economic responsibility to see
that markets work efficiently, preventing monopolies
from developing or flourishing.
V.
Helping Small Businesses Get Started
Reducing capital gains
Implemented a micro-loan program to provide small
loans -- ranging from a few hundred dollars to
$25,000 to entrepreneurs to establish or strengthen
their small business.
*
Allow expensing of $2,500 of small business
start-up costs. (Five year revenue figure of
$0.5 billion)
HUD/SBA entrepreneurship initiative in Atlanta
VI.
Helping Small Business Reduce the Cost of Capital and Get
Access to Credit
Expanding the 7(a) SBA loan program. We have
authorized a record $6 billion loan authority to
permit the Small Business Administration to guarantee
small business loans. This is 50% above 1991.
Increasing Access to Credit. (See suggested speech
insert)
-
Working with the bank regulators to increase
credit availability
-
Meetings with bankers, examiners, and
borrowers all over the U.S. to increase
credit availability. We have called for
banks to do "more lending and less
investing in government securities."
Worked with bank regulators to issue over 30
-
regulatory changes to increase credit
availability.
-
President directed bank examiners to
conduct their valuation of real estate
based on the ability to generate income,
not on its liquidation value.
-
Taken action to end over-zealous bank
examinations. (Need more detail)
Opening Up Equity Markets to Small Businesses (See
suggested speech insert)
-
SEC has revised its regulations to make it
easier for small businesses to obtain capital
through a simplified registration process.
See Credit Availability paper for further
detail. Also see Kolb paper (p. 4)
Reducing the Cost of Capital for Small Businesses by
reducing costly tax and regulatory burdens.
*
Increase expensing limit from $10,000 to
$25,000 (Five year revenue figure of $8.4
billion)
Grant AMT relief for preferences arising
from active participation in a small
business (Five year revenue figure of $2.2
billion)
Eliminating capital gains on newly issued
small business stock. (Five year revenue
figure of $0.7 billion)
Allow small businesses to elect inflation-
-
adjusted inventory accounting rules. (Five
year revenue figure of $2.6 billion)
Exempt small business from uniform
capitalization and long-term contract
rules. (Five year revenue figure of $0.3
billion)
*
Enhance and simplify pension rules for
small business. (Five year revenue figure
of $0.9 billion)
VII. Helping Small Business Expand Employment and Increase
Productivity
Expanding employment and increasing productivity
depend not only on generating more capital (plant and
equipment) but also on:
Research and Development
-
Making permanent the R&E tax credit.
-
Supported an increase in the Small Business
Innovation Research Program (SBIR) which sets
aside a portion of Federal R&D budgets for small
business. Doubled from 1.25% to 2.5%.
Quality of the Workforce
-
AMERICA 2000
-
Job Training
Reducing Unnecessary Costs
Product Liability and Tort Reform. Insurance
-
and litigation costs are crushing small
businesses. (See CK p.5)
Civil Justice Reform (CK p. 5-6)
-
Expanding and Opening Foreign Markets
-
Export Initiatives
(See paper on Small Business and U.S. export
assistance)
Enterprise zone legislation
VIII. Clearing Away the Regulatory Maze
Easing the Tax Burden.
-
Simplified Payroll Tax Deposit System. Allowing
small businesses to deposit payroll taxes once a
month rather than twice a week. As many as 75%
of all employers will be able to use this "once-
a-month" rule.
-
Simplified form for reporting Federal employment
taxes from small businesses.
-
Electronic deposit of payroll taxes.
-
Single Wage Reporting. So businesses don't have
to send in separate tax forms to IRS, Social
Security Administration, and Department of
Labor.
-
Tax Preparation Fees. The IRS has released a
ruling allowing over 16 million sole proprietors
to deduct tax preparation fees as a business
expense rather than as a limited itemized
deduction.
the "top 2 percent. "
Providing for Workers: Health Insurance
-
Help in securing access to affordable health
insurance, 100 percent deductibility for the
self employed, and cost containment
vs.
-
Play-or-pay plan that amounts to doubling the
payroll tax on small business.
Providing for Workers: Parental Leave
Tax credits to offset costs for small and medium
-
size businesses
VS.
Government mandate that excludes employees of
-
the smallest businesses and imposes a hidden tax
on employees of medium sized businesses.
Regulatory Burden
-
Comprehensive program to minimize burden
VS.
-
The sound of silence
Legal Reform
Product liability reform and civil justice
-
reforms to reduce the cost of insurance and the
hidden tax of needless litigation.
VS.
No mention of any steps to address these burdens
-
Worker Training
AMERICA 2000 education reforms, Job Training
-
2000, and Work Adjustment Assistance for all
dislocated workers
SEP-21-1992 14:36 FROM GREENSBORO STAFF OFFICE
TO
12024566218--
P.01
OFFICE OF
PRESIDENTIAL ADVANCE
COVER PAGE
TO: Carol
FROM: Will Nance - Greensboro ,NC
2
TOTAL NUMBER OF PAGES:
(including cover page)
DATE:
TIME:
2:30
MESSAGE:
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR PROBLEMS WITH THE TRANSMISSION PLEASE CALL.
TELEPHONE NUMBER:
SEP-21-1992 14:37 FROM GREENSBORO STAFF OFFICE
TO
12024566218--
P.02
TO:
Carol
FROM: Will Nance
White House Advance
Greensboro, NC
Carol,
We are doing the event in the Joseph S. Koury Convention Center
which is an extremely nice facility connected to the Holiday Inn
- both facilities are privately owned by Mr. Joseph Koury.
*
Koury started out as a small businessman after WWII by
buying up old army barracks and turning them into small
houses.
*
Over the next 30 years he has built 1,000s of homes in the
Greensboro area
*
Koury know owns shopping centers, a large mall, the Holiday
Inn and the new convention center - among other commercial
properties
*
The convention center which will house the event was
finished in March of 1992 at a cost of over $100 million.
*
The city of Greensboro proposed building the convention
center with tax dollars; however a city wide vote of 2 to 1
voted down the idea - paving the way for Koury to build it
with private money.
*
The next stage of the hotel/convention center will be the
addition of a 30 story tower onto the hotel.
*
Local republicans claim he has always been very supportive.
*
Mr. Koury will be greeting The President upon arrival at the
hotel.
I've checked this with 2 different sources the convention manager
and a local former North Carolina state senator.
I hope this helps - give us a call if you have any question at
all.
Will Nance
TOTAL P.02
Rob Shaw (919)292-9161
room #
X1672
-
Joseph Koury Conv. Ctn.
part of Holiday Inn 4 Seasons
Triad complix osedof 3 countries:
Winston Salem
Greensboro
HighPoint
North Carlonia is a net export
state that
Geensboro is a very pro-choice city
Greensboro, NC
Triad Business Community
one business we should highlight
Joseph S. Koung Convention Ctr.
(local success story)
predominantly small businesses
(Trip)
Small businessman made big
Census:
Mike Famell
BR79
301-763-2700
account for 85% of
15% of all U.S. Cos
those COS sellin only
Am. exports and "nof
one market
C.Fred Bergsten (Dr.)
Inst. for Int'l Econ.
202-328-9000
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL MONDAY, AUGUST 10, 1992
For New Jobs, Help Small Business
In this political season, as the candi-
ing a de facto employment tax on compa-
expand their overhead.
dates talk about how to improve the econ-
nies.
In the face of such constraints, there is
omy, there is too little interest in an
Since the great majority of workers
no simple way to revive the small busi
idea that used to be a mainstay of party
without health insurance are employed by
ness sector. In the financial sector, the bi;
platforms - the need for a vibrant small
small businesses in retailing, restaurants
drop in interest rates since 1990 will gradu
business sector.
and other service industries, there is great
ally ease the credit crunch for small busi
In the first three decades after World
concern among those businesses that the
nesses by restoring bank profitability and
War II. many politicians favored pro-
federal government will soon require them
encouraging banks to become more com
grams to bolster small business because of
to provide some form of health insurance.
petitive in their lending practices again
concern about overconcentration of eco-
Such mandates could significantly in-
Other sources of credit are also starting to
nomic power. Between 1954 and 1979, the
crease their labor costs.
appear. Some financial planning groups
sales of the Fortune 500 companies as a
If the economy were booming, compa-
for instance, are evolving into de fact
share of gross national product rose from
nies would add more workers despite the
merchant banks by helping credit-starve
37% to 58% and many commentators be-
concerns about health care costs and other
small businesses obtain new capital from
lieved that the U.S. would evolve into a
potentially expensive regulations such as
wealthy private investors. Meanwhile, the
"new industrial state" dominated by large
the new disabilities act. But because eco-
Securities and Exchange Commission
firms. In the 1990s, the U.S. needs to
nomic growth since 1989 has been the
wants to help ease the credit crunch by
encourage small business for a different
poorest since World War II, many firms,
reason. We need a vibrant small business
liberalizing its rules governing the regis
sector because we need jobs.
tration and sale of new securities by small
Where The Jobs Aren't
companies. But all of these measures will
Since the Fortune 500 companies
take time, and there is unlikely to be a
stopped growing more than a decade ago,
broad-based recovery in credit access for
small business has become the primary
FORTUNE
small business until 1993 or 1994.
engine for creating jobs. During the 1980s,
FORTUNE 500
500 SHARE
What can the government do? Both
the Fortune 500 companies cut 3.5 million
EMPLOYMENT
OF TOTAL
jobs while small businesses created more
WON-FARM
political parties want to encourage the
EMPLOYMENT
creation of small businesses by improving
than 20 million jobs. During the past 18
the tax treatment of capital gains. The
months, the Fortune 500 have proba-
bly shed an additional 600,000 jobs.
1954
7,857,483
14.6%
Republicans want to reduce the capital
gains tax rate to 20%, while the Democrats
The failure of the U.S. economy to
1960
9,178,511
15.2
propose to index capital gains for inflation
recover since the 1990-91 recession is be-
cause small business isn't creating as
1964
10,464,383
16.1
and provide some form of tax relief for
investment in new businesses. Despite
many new jobs as it used to. The Bureau of
1968
13,987,210
20.6
widespread concern about the credit
Labor Statistics estimates that new busi-
1969
14,813,809
crunch problem, though, neither party has
nesses added only about 144,000 jobs in
21.0
suggested changing the regulations that
1991, compared with 1.5 million in 1990. Ac-
1970
cording to provisional estimates for 1992,
14,607,581
20.6
are encouraging banks to shift to to more
conservative lending policies.
new firms added only about 10,000 jobs a
1971
14,324,890
20.1
The other critical small business issue
month during the first quarter and 25,000 a
1972
for which both parties are still formulating
month in the second quarter, compared
14,676,849
19.9
policy is how to provide health insurance
with 100,000 a month during the 1980s.
1973
15,531,683
20.2
for the 35 million to 40 million Americans
Unfriendly Environment
1974
15,255,946
19.4
who now lack it. Most are dependent on
There are two primary reasons small
jobs in small businesses. Yet only 39% of
businesses have failed to create an ade-
1975
14,412,992
18.7
firms with fewer than 25 employees offer
quate supply of new jobs since 1990.
1976
health care; 34% of firms with 25 to 99
14,836,163
18.6
First is the financial environment,
employees do not. The Bush adminis-
which is unfriendly to small business. In
1977
15,298,292
18.5
tration wants to improve access to health
New England, Texas and California, major
care by introducing insurance tax credits.
1978
15,785,439
18.2
bank failures or consolidations have re-
The Democrats propose a "pay or play"
duced banks' ability to support lending to
1979
16,193,344
18.0
policy under which the government would
small businesses. In other regions, many
take care of people not covered at work.
15,909,985
17.5
banks also have shifted to more conserva-
A High Risk
tive lending policies because of new fed-
1881
15,635,041
17.1
But neither party has explained in
eral regulations that severely penalize
detail how it would finance its plan. There
bank directors who permit their institu-
1982
14,362,190
16.0
is a high risk that the next administra-
tions to pursue seemingly risky lending
1983
14,052,725
15.5
tion could enact some form of payroll tax
policies. As a result of these new con-
similar to the Social Security tax in order
straints, banks have been significantly
1984
14,247,953
15.0
to finance comprehensive health care.
expanding their portfolios of government
14,034,477
14.3
Such a tax would probably not increase
bonds while holding back on commercial
employment costs at companies that al-
lending. The June data for bank assets
18,681,555
13.7
ready have private health insurance, but it
indicate that commercial banks now have
13,328,832
13.0
could increase employment costs signifi-
more government securities in their port-
cantly for firms that currently lack health
folios than commercial loans.
12,707,979
12.0
insurance. Such a large tax hike would
In the 1980s, credit was expensive but
12,539,817
aqueeze the profit margins of many small
11.5
easily obtained. In the 1990s, credit is
businesses and further reduce their capac-
cheap but severely rationed. Since small
12,429,305
11.3
ity to expand employment.
firms do not have access to the stock
The U.S. enjoyed an employment boom
market, the bond market or the commer-
11,973,236
10.9
during the 1980s because a burst of entre-
cial paper market, they are heavily depen-
Financial Services
preneurial energy coincided with a highly
dent on borrowing from banks. While
flexible labor market that rewarded people
surveys of bank lending policies suggest
big and small alike, have turned cautious,
with highly divergent skills, education and
credit conditions are starting to ease, it
focusing on controlling costs rather than
experience. Small businesses were able to
will be some time before banks are pre-
taking on new risks. Small businesses,
generate millions of new jobs because they
pared to finance new business creation on
were not burdened with social overhead
which usually can't pass costs forward or
the scale of the 1980s.
offset them through other savings, are so
costs as high as those at the Fortune 500.
A second factor hurting small business
concerned about health insurance and
Whether the next administration is Repub-
is the sharp rise in health insurance costs,
other regulatory costs that they are defer-
lican or Democratic, it must not permit the
as well as fears that the federal govern-
ring new hiring or hiring temporary
creation of new federally mandated safety
ment will increase such costs even further.
workers. The fact that large firms have
nets and regulations to undermine the
The medical sector's share of GNP is
ability of small business to return the
recently increased overtime and hours
already more than 13% and will rise
worked to record levels without adding
nation to full employment.
to 18% by the end of the decade if current
new employees indicates that all sectors of
Mr. Hale is chief economist of Kemper
trends persist. Health insurance is becom-
the business community are afraid to
Financial Cos. in Chicago.
Dan --
Spoke with Richard Allen of Ladd Furniture, Inc.
HP Box 3
High Point, NC 27261
VP met with him and other furniture manufacturers a month or so
ago. Mr. Allen didn't remember exactly when. I'll try to
find out from VP's office.
Medium-sized business; approx. 140 employees in High Point
They have the biggest trouble with EPA/environment regs.
There have been increases in the amount of reporting and they
have had to add new staff just to keep up on the reading of
the new regs, etc. This is not the kind of job creation we
are looking for. We want to invest in new ideas, new
technologies, human ingenuity, etc., not paper-pushing.
The forms are complicated and take up way too much time. He
feels businesses should be concentrating on doing business
and selling their product, not filling out form after form
after form.
He is a firm believer that business needs to take responsibility,
not have government mandate everything.
Example of EPA reg. abuses: Furniture manufacturers currently
have the capability to reduce emissions (sprays, enamels,
etc.). However, they know that the government is going to
issue a reg. that will tell them to reduce emissions by 50%
of what they are emitting now. Their theory is why cut now
and lower our base of emissions, so that we'll have to cut
50% of that lower number, when we can stay where we are and
wait for the reg to tell us what to do.