Heritage Employment Report: 2009 Ends with More Job Losses

Heritage Employment Report: 2009 Ends with More Job Losses

Policies to Encourage Investment Needed

As long as entrepreneurs remain skeptical about their expansion prospects, job creation will remain low and unemployment unacceptably high. The NFIB asked small business owners about the single most important problem they faced. Their three most common responses were poor sales (32 percent), taxes (24 percent), and government regulations and red tape (11 percent).[2] While Congress can do relatively little about poor sales, it has direct control over both the tax and regulatory burden businesses face.

If Congress wants to reduce unemployment, it should reduce the barriers to business success. Specifically, Congress should:

• Pass legislation placing a moratorium on any tax increases until unemployment falls below 5 percent;
• Rescind the unspent "stimulus" spending to reduce the deficit and allay entrepreneurs' concerns about future tax increases;
• Not vote on the financially harmful cap-and-trade or card-check proposals in this session;
• Prohibit the regulation of CO2 under the Clean Air Act, which would place another burden on small and medium-size businesses;
• Cap punitive damages, limit the ability of lawyers to file class action lawsuits, and prevent jury shopping to obtain favorable verdicts;
• Repeal Section 404 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act;
• Reduce energy costs by reducing the regulatory burden on domestic energy production; and

• Suspend the Davis-Bacon Act until the unemployment rate falls below 5 percent, stretching federal construction funding further and enabling small construction contractors to bid on federally funded projects.

These steps would increase entrepreneurs' confidence in their business success and encourage more private-sector investment and hiring. More entrepreneurial activity--not more spending from Washington--holds the key to an employment recovery.

So you don't believe unemployment is intentional? Current plan is just the opposite.