By Walt Rowen

As a small business owner, I am always a bit leery when organizations release a plan pledging to make businesses like mine a priority in the fall of an election year. Before the 2022 midterm elections, the conservative advocacy group the Job Creators Network (JCN) released its American Small Business Prosperity Plan. After the election and with an incoming Republican U.S. House Majority, it’s worth evaluating this plan as a substantive statement of the new majority’s priorities on small business. 

The JCN lays out eight provisions that purport to support small businesses, mostly by pushing back on the Biden Administration agenda. Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the consideration and do support some of the proposals from JCN, including expanding access to capital for small businesses and limiting the regulations we are facing. However, some of these provisions seem to take a hatchet to policies that could exacerbate inflation without weighing their true impact on entrepreneurs, many of whom are operating with very tight financial margins. I also suspect this is just the latest example of D.C. power brokers paying lip service to small business issues during an election year, only to turn their attention to large corporations once the votes are counted.

Many people have heard about the Federal Reserve’s annual report of how many American households can’t cover a $400 expense. Another national survey of more than 2,500 diverse business owners found that four in 10 entrepreneurs, and more small business owners of color, lack confidence in their ability to fund an unplanned $5,000 business expense. 

With that in mind, I am very concerned that the JCN plan has vague language for reforming health care. This is a tired ploy. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) made it possible for millions of Americans, including small business owners and their employees, to finally obtain healthcare coverage. Those same Americans also saw a Republican-controlled House and Senate attempt this promised reform in 2017 by simply taking away their coverage with no plan to replace it. Only a thumbs down vote from the late Sen. John McCain prevented this from happening. Forgive me for suspecting there is no real plan here.

Currently, 35 million people have health coverage thanks to the ACA, and the Biden Administration has worked to make healthcare more affordable for working families. Previous legislation created tax credits that reduce monthly premium expenses and make health coverage on ACA Marketplace more affordable were recently extended in the Inflation Reduction Act through 2025. This will help roughly 13 million Americans save an average of $800 per year. If you have something better, show it to me. Don’t hide it in vague language.

These health care policies are one example of government investment that is helping support working Americans who need it the most. However, the American Small Business Prosperity Plan indicates a willingness to undermine the stability of these hard working Americans by  reining in programs that offer critical support. The simple truth is that this is not what small business owners want. A majority of small business owners support these initiatives. For example, a survey late last year found that 62% of small business owners surveyed say investments made in the Build Back Better would help ease inflationary pressures.

It is also important to remember that the past two years have been unprecedented for Main Streets across America. My company, Susquehanna Glass Co., in Columbia, Pa., has been open since 1910, but we would not have survived without a Paycheck Protection Program loan and other efforts to keep the economy open. While communities are emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, many small businesses are still working to get back to where they were before it began. Going after government spending without fully considering their struggles could be very detrimental to their recovery.

That being said, if conservative lawmakers are truly concerned about how the country’s fiscal policy is impacting small business, then they should forgo this plan’s pledge to make the small business portion of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent. This was touted by Republicans as a tax relief package intended to drive small business growth. In reality, it gave large handouts to multinational corporations and wealthy Americans, but did not provide this same equity to small business or working Americans. In addition, tax cuts could be akin to steroids for the current inflationary pressures we are seeing.

The small business provisions in this law expire in 2022. Before rushing to permanently enshrine the inequitable tax benefits between corporations and small businesses, Congress should fix the law so small businesses get a better deal and corporations have to do more to pay their fair share

From my point of view, the Biden Administration has made small businesses and their communities the center of its efforts. If Republicans are truly committed to supporting small business, any attempt to support us should include working with the current administration, not rolling back its policies. 

Walt Rowan is president of Susquehanna Glass Co. in Columbia, PA, a business that has been in his family for generations since 1910, and co-chair of Small Business for America’s Future.