Election Year Spurs Small Business Giveaways

The struggling U.S. economy during an election year means many politicians are crafting policy aimed at small businesses in the hopes of scoring points with voters; however, statistics from the Joint Committee on Taxation and the Tax Policy Center reveal these measures really don’t help. The estimated cost to government for the Small Business Tax Cut proposal is $46 billion, and experts say most benefits will go to those earning $1 million or more and will not help create any jobs. Economist Bruce Bartlett argues that money would be better spent on infrastructure, and politicians can spin it by saying infrastructure helps small businesses, too. For more on this continue reading the following article from Economist’s View.

Bruce Bartlett:

Do Small Businesses Create Jobs?, by Bruce Bartlett, Commentary, NY Times: ... Congress is, of course, always keen to find ways of aiding small businesses, which are akin to mom and apple pie in its eyes. Just recently, it approved the JOBS Act, which is intended to ease access to credit by “emerging growth” companies. Congressional Republicans are anxious to enact a new tax cut for small businesses, as well. The Small Business Tax Cut Act, which was reported out by the House Ways and Means Committee on April 10, would give a one-year, 20 percent tax cut to every business with 500 or fewer employees.

The Joint Committee on Taxation estimates that it will reduce federal revenues by $46 billion. The committee report offered virtually no rationale for the legislation other than that small businesses are good and deserve a tax cut, period. The linkage between a small business’s tax burden and job creation, however, is tenuous at best. ...

The Tax Policy Center estimates that the benefits would accrue overwhelming to the wealthy, with 49 percent of the total tax cut going to those making more than $1 million.

There may be policies that would increase the number of business start-ups and aid employment this way. But an across-the-board tax cut for every small business, defined only in terms of employment, is nothing but an election-year giveaway unlikely to create any jobs whatsoever.

Instead, let's use the $46 billion this would cost (and mostly waste in terms of job creation) to build infrastructure. If it helps to sell it, make it infrastructure that would be useful to small businesses -- it can probably be argued that most infrastructure projects would help small businesses in one way or the other. This way, even apart from the better prospects for job creation from infrastructure spending, at least we'll have something to show for the money when all is said and done.

This blog post was republished with permission from Economist's View.