As a small businessman, I am used to being abused by the government. The fact is that we don't need or want government help but they force it on us anyway. After listening to last night's "debate" Obama will set a new standard for being an enemy of small business.

In the recent presidential election, small business is front and center for the pandering candidates. It seems as though they have finally discovered that small business keeps this country employed. Not GM, not VW, not big banks, etc. but small business is providing 85% of the jobs in this country. We are also the most put up on, taxed, and abused segment of our economy. Don't worry, we can take it, but the fact is all that we want is to be left alone.

First of all, without starting a business it is hard to fathom what it takes. You don't just open your doors and start raking in the money. Most stories about starting a business are all too familiar. You know, the story about going out on your own, under financed, putting your home and life savings at risk, working 12-16 hours a day, being away from your family and going without for years. You are just out on a shaky limb without a net. No one is going to bail you out like AIG or some Wall Street firm. You are the last people banks will loan money too and if they do you have to put up your first born for collateral. The only thing worse is working for somebody else. If you don't think starting and maintaining a business is difficult, you just have to see that 98% of businesses fail in less than two years. Guess what, that is the way it should be for small business and that is the way it should be for AIG, GM, or anyone else. It is a risk that we welcome because if you survive you reap and deserve the rewards.

While both parties are lurching towards socialism, the Democrats seem to be winning the race. Obama represents the old, socialist failures of the past. His policies are not new and will try to dictate to small business and tax us out of existence. If he comes in and tells me what type of health care I have to provide, I will simply not provide any health care for my employees. If he promotes taxing me more, then I will just lay off workers to pay for it. If he tries to over regulate me, I will just cut back on the size of my business. These are all sound business decisions that will have to be made if his policies are enacted.

In other words, Obama and the Democrats will just be taking one step forward and two steps back. People who start and run businesses will find a way around this lunacy. We have the drive to do so. When voting for Obama, workers and the poor are not just "sticking it to the man," they are sticking it to themselves.

On the bright side, Obama could be the cure for the Republican Party. He might be so bad that they remember who they are. Although McCain has his problems, Obama is an unrepentant, unabashed socialist. That means his administration will be so bad it might just cure some of the RINO (Republicans in name only) disease running rampant in the Republican Party. Electing this smooth talking, empty suit is a big mistake but it might just help make enough people mad that it will wake up this country in the long run. I just hope that "run" it is not too long.
So small business……it is time for us to dig our fox holes and hold on tight to our checkbooks.

Tim Price
jat-55@msn.com

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It would be really wonderful if people would take two minutes and really listen to/research Obama's position - on small business and everything else for that matter. Regarding healthcare, small businesses are exempt from providing required healthcare under Obama's plan. His plan includes the creation of a tax credit to help you offer insurance to your employees. Taxes: Your business would have to have a net profit of $250,000 before your taxes would be increased. In a survey conducted by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) found that only 14% of respondents said they had $200,000 or more in annual income.

Look, I'm as displeased as anyone that our government had to step in to save our financial system last week. But, getting credit moving again will do more for small business than having banks hoard money from each other and small business borrowers. My husband, a new small business owner, has already had one customer cancel because he can't get any funding for the his project. Hopefully this is not a trend, because we count on my husband's income as our primary economic support.

I for one am not voting for Obama as a means of "sticking it to the man." I am happily voting for Obama because I truly believe that four more years of Republican leadership will leave this country too far gone to be saved from ruin: financial, environmental, educational, healthcare, you name it. I want my children to have a better future than we're currently offering them. I have no problem with some additional oversight from our government because things have gotten so bad since it stopped providing that oversight. The last 8 years have proven that we can't trust profiteers to do the right thing.

For the record, small business was thrust into the national spotlight last night by McCain pegging on "Joe the Plumber," who has been shown today to be a) not a registered plumber, b) is a registered Republican, and c) was not an "undecided" voter when he approached Obama, but a McCain supporter.

Libby Palmer
Chattanooga

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Allow me to add to this as a small business owner as well.

My primary profession not paying well enough to support a family of three, I, too, started a small storefront business. I did so, as the original author stated, by borrowing against my home – a home I had to build with my own hands for the same economic reasons. It was a strenuous, risky, labor- and cash-intensive process that scared the daylights out of me, but was as rewarding as any dreams you may have ever had…and I ran it -despite the current tax situation.

Sure, there were sales taxes I had to forward in. I “get” that. Then there were property taxes on property I was renting, and did not own. Then there was a tax on the value of equipment that I owned outright. Being in the city limits, I also had the joy of double taxation of all of these. Then, not acknowledging the payroll taxes involved, there was my favorite of all taxes: A tax on the amount of taxes I was paying.

I remained in business - despite - the best efforts of the state as a small businessman, foregoing the 36% of my profits (that’s money after expenses of day to day operation) referenced in the national news I generously gave to the government. And, had I been successful enough to reach the quarter million dollar mark, and had to give yet another 3%, I’d have done then what I had to do sooner…sell or close doors. And I was lucky enough to sell - before - we entered this recession that was caused, with warning to the Democratic Party on video, by the current loan crisis.

Herbert Hoover tried Barack’s plan of cutting off trade and increasing taxes on the very people that provide the majority of employment in the early 1930s, and he succeeded in turning a recession into a Depression. Now, despite history’s lesson, you demand a command performance. Unbelievable.

In the weeks after 9/11, on top of entering another recession in the last two fiscal quarters of Clinton’s term, despite being an apparent gigundus idiot, Bush took the novel approach of lowering capital gains taxes amongst others, and we pulled out of it. We enter a recession again (for what comes up always does go down), you now praise the wisdom of raising taxes on those that control the economy. Unbelievable.

You get what you deserve, but in this case, I am getting what you deserve also, and I don’t like that. Change for the sake of change isn’t always a good thing; sometimes, it’s quite frankly just ‘dumb’, and history and the facts at hand dictate this is the case here. I pray you are wrong, because the threat is as real as your short-sightedness, and none of us can afford either. Literally.

C.W. Joel
Harrison

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First things first, I would like to congratulate Tim on being so successful. Being a small business owner, I appreciate the intense effort put forth by anyone that, after expenses and costs, can pocket over $250,000.00. That is no small accomplishment, especially in todays business environment.

I calculated the change in my taxes under Obama's plan, and I'll save only $500. Looking at it another way, that's $500 I won't have to send to "my Uncle in Washington." That is if I file the same income amount as last year. Not too many small business owners are going to be able to do that this time around. It has been a hard year so far.

With "McSame" as President, I guess I'd just have to pay the same amount as last year. That's a shame, because as Tim will tell you, we small business owners really get it socked to us each year. Tim, making so much more than I do will be able to enjoy a tax cut though. Good for him!
I hate paying so much in taxes like anyone. More than that, I hate the inequality in our tax rate system. I hate seeing Warren Buffet, and Bill Gates, pay a much smaller percentage of taxes on their income than their secretaries. Why should their tax rate be so much less than millions of middle income Americans?

There is something "rotten in Denmark" about "McSame" proposing tax cuts for the mega rich. Our nation is not only handicapped by a half trillion dollar deficit, and a ten trillion dollar debt, but we are at war (on two fronts, I might add), and we are mired in a recession. Unemployment is climbing faster than I've seen it in years, and "McSame" wants to lessen the taxes being brought in from the highest income group among us.

In the September/October issue of "Contingencies", a magazine of the American Academy of Actuaries (I'm sure that's a real fun group), "McSame" asserts, "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation." In plain English, lets deregulate the health insurance industry! Why not, it worked so well for the banking system.

Tim might be surprised to learn that "McSames" health care plan replaces the tax incentives for employers to offer health insurance, with a tax credit for people to buy insurance on their own. This plan is popular with the Republican side of the aisle, and is called a "consumer directed" approach to health care. The thinking is that the more directly people bear the costs of their care, the more they will drive down cost by being better shoppers. Under his plan, employees, not employers, pay for their care.

I "betcha" like that idea Tim.
"Dubya" proposed this same plan in 2007. Al Hubbard, the White House economic advisor at the time, described it as "food insurance." He argued that if an insurance company paid for your groceries, as it does your health care bills, "pretty soon you would be buying caviar, the best steaks, and more than you needed." The hope is that if we pay more of our own costs, we'll pass up "caviar care" for the equivalent of "Spam." Oh boy, that sounds like it's really going to improve the health care system.

The cornerstone of the "McSame" plan is the elimination of the "employer exclusion" tax break. You will have to pay taxes on the health benefits you either provide, or receive. There goes your tax break Tim. I'll bet you wondered how he was going to fund that tax break for the rich, didn't you. You don't have to worry about it though. Just let your employees foot the cost of that for you, because I'm sure you pay them more than ample wages to do so.

I have noticed over the years, that people spout off about "socialism" without really stopping to think about what they are saying. Social Security, Medicare, Food Stamps, Disability Payments, Welfare, Public Housing, and education are all "socialistic" programs. There are many more too. Want to see our economy, and public safety systems bottom out? Take those "socialistic" programs away. Starve the elderly, poor and disabled. Fail to house, educate and feed the most needy among us, and let's see how long it takes for your business, and our society to fail, Tim. One way or another, all strata of our society is tied to the other, whether we like it or not.

Rod Dagnan
Hixson
roddagnan@comcast.net

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So, I guess the fact that "Joe the Plumber" asked the blunt questions about owning a small business negates the response. "You'll never make $250,000 Joe, so why are you worried about it?"

Is that an American response? From all the media coverage, Joe doesn't appear to be a very responsible guy – probably not a guy who will make $250,000. So, I guess it's OK for a possible future leader to say hey Joe, you're a loser, you’re couldn't possibly make $250,000 running a small business. Is this the kind of encouragement we need from a president?

If a person who is renting complains about the property tax of owning a home, are we going to pummel him or her about the fact that they rent and don't own a home? They'll never own a home. Their credit cards are maxed. The bills are barely paid. Who are they to think that they can complain about property taxes?

Michael Mattheiss
msmattheiss@comcast.net