Dinsmore/Steele

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Small Business Can Save America

Bad news is all around us and only seems to be getting worse each day. Our nation’s leaders are deadlocked about how to solve our problems while the president runs amok with promise and rhetoric that don’t translate to his ability. Unemployment is soaring and the deficit has reached the stratosphere. China is taking the lead as a global power while the USA falters…and our younger generations don’t seem to care that our nation is getting worse, not better.

It’s time for small business to come to America’s rescue—and it can be done. Just as it’s been done before. More than 20 million new jobs—many from startups that grew into billion dollar companies like Amazon.com and Starbucks—were created during the great boom of the Clinton administration. During Reagan’s presidency, great economic progress was fueled by the sentiment that small businesses and entrepreneurs could account for almost all of that growth.

It’s a fact that small business helps America. According to the Small Business Administration, an astonishing 99% of companies with payroll are small businesses—and those companies employ more than 50% of the working public and create an impressive 80% of new job growth.

Small business propels the country forward—and if our stubborn political leaders want to get our country moving again and reclaim our spot as the greatest nation on earth, they need to start putting forth the policies that help small businesses and entrepreneurs do their job. According to the World Entrepreneurship Forum, a global think tank dedicated to small business, some top methods for promoting entrepreneurship include:

·        Reform tax and regulatory environments so as to make it easier, faster, and less costly for entrepreneurs to set up enterprises.

·        Create entrepreneurship-friendly support institutions that provide technological knowledge, market information, business know-how, certification services, access to capital, and other essential business support.

·        Understand entrepreneurship by making it known that entrepreneurs are positive agents of social change, wealth creation, transparency, sustainability, and innovation.

If we had a comprehensive 21st Century Entrepreneurship Act it would include tax reform and regulatory ease. It would include immigration reform to woo the best and brightest entrepreneurs and engineers to our country. It would increase access to capital and help more startups actually start up.

Now Washington just needs to wake up and give small business a chance to save America.