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KEY QUOTE: "Under our plan, the House has already passed more than a dozen bills, though many remain stuck or delayed in the Democrat-led Senate. Job creation is our top priority and will continue to be until our economy gets back on track. We don’t need higher taxes; we need a growing economy and more private-sector jobs."

Tax Hike Will Destroy Job Creation
The Piqua Daily Call
By John Boehner
October 13, 2011

Private-sector job creators of all sizes are being pummeled by Washington.  They’ve been hurt by a government that offers short-term gimmicks rather than fundamental reforms.  They’ve been demoralized by a government that creates uncertainty instead of confidence.  And now, adding to a long list of job-destroying policies, President Obama has proposed a tax hike on job creators.  With millions of Americans out of work - including thousands of Ohioans - raising taxes on the very people we need to grow our economy and put our country back to work is the wrong thing to do.

As a former small businessman, my experience has taught me that raising taxes on families and small businesses will only hurt job creation.  We need to be encouraging the private-sector to grow; raising their taxes will only discourage job creation, innovation, and entrepreneurship.

An estimated 750,000 small businesses would be hit by President Obama’s $1.5 trillion tax hike.  Small business accounted for 65%, or 9.8 million of the 15 million new jobs created between 1993 and 2009.  So, if those small businesses face a higher tax burden, their ability to hire more workers will be limited and the entire economy will suffer. 

The president claims tax hikes are necessary to address our debt crisis and kick-start our economy.  But what he has failed to explain to the American people is that job creators’ tax rates would have to rise to impossible levels to even come close to paying off the deficit.  His tax hikes would raise revenue by approximately $855 billion – about 6.6 percent of the $12.8 trillion in debt that Democratic policies will add over the next 10 years.

Tax hikes on small businesses are not the answer to our debt crisis – and economists and fiscal watchdogs alike agree. Glenn Hubbard, dean of the Columbia Business School, said, ‘The president’s advocacy for higher marginal tax rates on the well-to-do dampens both job creation and asset prices.’  Peter Morici, a University of Maryland economist, stated that ‘The taxes [President Obama] wants—jacking up rates on high income individuals—would discourage hiring by many smaller businesses like machine shops and restaurants, whose owners already face marginal rates near 60 percent, counting state taxes.’  Even President Obama at one point agreed -- in 2009 he said ‘the last thing you want to do is raise taxes in the middle of a recession because that would just suck up – take more demand out of the economy and put business further in a hole.’

House Republicans have taken a different approach and proposed a Plan for America’s Job Creators focused on removing government barriers to private-sector job creation. Our plan includes stopping out-of-control spending, eliminating excessive government regulations, and fixing our tax code for families and small businesses - all without raising taxes.

Under our plan, the House has already passed more than a dozen bills, though many remain stuck or delayed in the Democrat-led Senate.  Job creation is our top priority and will continue to be until our economy gets back on track.  We don’t need higher taxes; we need a growing economy and more private-sector jobs.  I encourage you to learn more about our Plan for America’s Job Creators at Jobs.GOP.Gov.