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Raising Taxes on Small Businesses Isn’t a Recipe for Job Creation (Rep. John Boehner)

by House Minority Leader John Boehner - 03/18/09 9:51 AM ET

At a time when American families and small businesses are hurting, raising taxes on any American should be out of the question. Unfortunately, the President’s massive $3.6 trillion budget contains $1.4 trillion in new taxes that will affect every American.

This budget spends too much, taxes too much, and borrows too much from our kids and grandkids.

Just how much does the administration’s plan tax and spend? There’s a $646 billion “cap and trade” energy tax; a $636 billion tax on income and small businesses; new taxes on investors by raising capital gains and dividend rates; a resurrection of the death tax; and a reduction in charitable deductions which will result in $4 billion less in donations each year to charities across America.

How is raising taxes on small businesses, capital gains, or dividends going to create a single new job in America? After all, small businesses create between 60 and 80 percent of all jobs in America.

The administration claims that only couples who earn more than $250,000 will see their taxes increased – but that line of thought doesn’t stand up to the light of day. As The Wall Street Journal noted, “two of every three tax filers who fall into this income category are small business owners or investors.” Some have even gone as far as to call the President’s Budget a “war on investors, entrepreneurs, businesses, and more.”

This budget is a job-killer, plain and simple. Small businesses, family farms, middle-class families, retirees, charities, everyone with a 401(k), and anyone who has the audacity to flip on a light switch is going to pay higher taxes under this plan.

At the end of the day, Americans expect their government to live within its means – like millions of American families are being forced to do in this tough economic climate. The last thing Americans need right now is their own government pick pocketing families and small businesses to pay for its largesse.

This is a budget Americans simply can’t afford right now, and in the coming weeks, Americans will see that House Republicans will offer better solutions that will create American jobs, help small businesses, without burdening future generations with a mountain of unsustainable debt.