Hawking the same old "big" business "wish list," of course. There is a lot of money to be made by his corporate cronies building "nukular" plants.
http://www.neoperspectives.com/smallbusiness.htm Kerry says he will raise taxes on those making over $200,000 a year. From CNSnews:
"I will roll back the tax cuts for those who make over $200,000 a year so that we can invest in health care and education, because that's the right thing to do for America. And everything that the Bush campaign is trying to do is designed to distort one clear fact - my plan doesn't raise taxes on the middle class.
My plan cuts taxes for the 98 percent of Americans who make under $200,000 a year," Kerry said. (1)
The top 2 tax rates are divided amongst those taxpayers making $175,000-$312,000 and over $312,000.
According to the Tax Policy Center, only about 2.6% of all Americans with any small business income report income over $175,000 a year. (2) Therefore, from their table we can estimate that
only around 2.3% of all small business owners would have their taxes raised. This has caused numerous pundits to denounce Bush as a spinner or a deceiver when he talks about small businesses creating jobs and the Kerry tax raise hurting small businesses. On first glance, it seems they are right. Only a small percent of small businesses would be effected by the tax raise. Let's dig deeper.
The Tax Policy Center also tells us that around 70% of those earning over $200,000 have some small business income. Making low end estimates from the Tax Policy Center table, those earning over $200,000 earn, on average, only 25% of their gross income from a small business. Additionally, only about 25% of those making over $200,000 derive more then 50% of their gross income from a small business (2). So, out of all taxpayers reporting any small business income,
Kerry would raise taxes on a small group, around .6% of all small business owners, representing those who make over $200,000 and earn a majority of their income through a small business. At this point we might agree with the pundits and wonder, what is Bush talking about in his campaign?
Keep in mind that small businesses might include things we don't traditionally think of as small business. According to the Tax Policy Center,
small business income can include any of the following: self-employment income, income from rents, royalties, partnerships, limited liability companies and farm income (2). However, we want to know about employment. Jobs is the big focus in this campaign. Taxing a bunch of rich people renting out houses and yachts certainly won't get any sympathy votes. Let's take a look at the job market.