Small Businesses Getting Swamped Under Biden’s Failed Left-wing Economic Agenda

I never dreamed I’d be a small business owner; it always seemed like something meant for other people with greater vision and creativity than I was made of. However, thanks to the creativity of my artist husband and my financial skills and resilience, we have become one of the millions of small business owners in this great country.

Becoming a small business owner is the pinnacle and quintessential American dream. A chance to create something of your own, build it, love it, and pass it on – or the earnings of said endeavor – to your offspring.

However, like most things under this current administration, being a small business owner is becoming increasingly difficult. Whether you are like us, trying to make something unique and profitable, or you are a consumer, this affects you.

And not in any good ways.

By The Numbers

COVID hit everyone hard, particularly small business owners. With everyone forced to lockdown due to the whims of power-hungry public health officials and blinded politicians, it was hard for many businesses to stay afloat. 

You’d think things would be better now; after all, the pandemic is over, right? But, unfortunately, many numbers indicate that things are worse for small businesses. 

After all, things don’t just “go back to normal” after the government forcibly shut small business and sent even more billions to giant megacorporations.

For instance, this year, private bankruptcy filings exceeded the highest point during the COVID pandemic. In February of this year, bankruptcies saw a 73% increase from the highest point in June of 2020.

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February saw over 31,000 bankruptcy filings, up 18% from a year prior. But not just small businesses have felt the sting of bankruptcy.

In February of this year, Chapter 11 bankruptcies were up 83%, typically utilized by larger businesses. So what gives? All I hear is how great the economy is doing thanks to the measures put in place by the Biden administration.

Tax Main Street

Uncle Joe sure likes to tout himself as a man of the people, the defender of the common man, empathic to the needs of the everyday worker and owner. However, his budget proposal shows a whopping $1.8 trillion in tax hikes specifically for small businesses.

For those of you who didn’t do so well in high school business class, increased taxes mean pay cuts for workers, increased prices for goods, and decreased growth opportunities for the businesses you know and love. But wait, there’s more!

Uncle Joe also wants to increase the corporate tax to 28%, one of the highest corporate tax rates in the industrialized world. While President Biden and the progressives he’s in bed with like to claim this move is merely meant to “Tax the Rich,” as AOC so stylishly sported on her overly priced dress at the Met Gala, this hike will affect small businesses perhaps more so than large corporations.

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While big businesses can move their operations overseas, outsource, and pass on costs, most small businesses don’t have that option. Instead, this hike will make it more expensive for them to do business.

More than one million small businesses will feel the burn of that corporate tax rate, and trust me; they are considered small businesses. These are establishments with less than 20 employees and business receipts that total less than $500,000 annually.

No Help For The Little Guy

Small business owners often have to rely on loans to get the necessary equipment to expand their business and cover unexpected costs due to disasters and situations that are no fault of their own. Unfortunately, this lifeline is limited now due to rising interest rates.

According to the Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index, approval rates of small business loans have fallen for nine consecutive months.

Head of credit strategy at UBS Evidence Lab Matthew Mish explains:

“We believe one of the more underappreciated signs of distress in U.S. corporate credit is already emanating from the small- and mid-size enterprises sector.”

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With banks trigger shy to approve small business loans, that leaves owners with only a few alternatives other than putting their credit needs on their personal lines of credit or shutting down shop.

Mr. Mish went on to say:

“The smallest of firms are facing the most severe pressure from rising rates, persistent inflation and slowing growth.”

So while large businesses and corporations weather the storm and have more options, the Mom & Pop store must choose between personal ruin or dashed dreams.

Breaking The Backbone Of America

As much as I love big businesses and retail stores, the truth is it’s still the small businesses across America that hold up the economic torso of this nation. Small businesses employ 50% of the workforce and account for two out of three new jobs added to the economy over the last 25 years.

That’s right; it’s not politicians that add new jobs, contrary to what they want you to believe; it’s everyday American dreamers like you and me. Unfortunately, according to the National Federation of Independent Businesses, half of small businesses have job openings they can’t fill, and 90% reported having few or no qualified applicants.

Instead of making life easier for the hard-working small businesses on Main Street, the Biden administration is making it worse. Perhaps the straw that breaks this camel’s back is the lie the President told when he said the increase in IRS funding and agents wouldn’t affect those who make less than $400,000.

It was his own Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who confirmed that new audits on people and small businesses who make below $400,000 a year will stay at the same levels of audit as in previous years. According to the Government Accountability Office, that’s about 90% of all audits. 

I wonder why anyone would still want to pursue the American dream of owning a business with odds like these stacked against you.

As one Oregon small business owner said:

“A lot of people will just have to put their dreams on hold.”

With dreams like these, perhaps it’s best not to dream at all.