Need help fighting right winger on Democrats & Small Business

[beachmom]

I'm fighting a right wing troll on my local blog. Here's my question: why does the chamber of commerce consistently endorse Republicans, when it does seem the GOP is more friends with certain big corporations to the denigration of small business? Also, does anyone have a link to that small business org that called John Kerry a best friend to small business?

This troll says I'm "anti-business" because I called corporate welfare obscene. I think I defended myself well on that, but then he brings up that Drake (97% with Bush Rep. in my district) was endorsed by the Chamber of Commerce and the NFIB (??) while our guy is endorsed by unions. I just don't get it. I want to have a good response.

[blm]

1. Wasn't there a BusinessWeek article c2005 that gave Kerry highest

rating for small business efforts? You might be able to gather some info from it.

[ProSense]

2. Here is some information

http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jul2006/sb20060726_786902.htm

http://www.inc.com/magazine/20060201/dc-hill.html

http://www.inc.com/slideshow_INC/slideviewer.cgi?list=dc&dir=&config=&refresh=-1&direction=forward&scale=0&cycle=on&slide=4&design=default&total=29

[karynnj]

3. The reason is that more people in the Chamber of Commerce

have always been Republican. Not all small business people join. I have no back up for this though.

That endorsement is likely the local chamber of commerce - if you get a list of officers, you could see who they've given money too. Just a thought. A second possibility is to see if they always endorse Republicans.

[beachmom]

4. I decided to skip the Chamber of commerce discussion.

First I called the person anti-worker. I mentioned that I had met union workers -- firefighters -- on Sunday (I mean, who's going to diss firefighters?). Then I did another post where I said: If Democrats are supposed to be anti-business, why did our last presidential nominee get voted best friend to small business owners by Inc. magazine? Then I gave the links.

I'm assuming that the Ch. of comm. votes Republican, because they figure "lower taxes" and "less regulation". This is why I love John Kerry -- he's been working to get small businesses tax breaks and to help them with regulation. In that sense, it is incorrect to categorize him, at least in the old ways, because he really is a champion for small businesses. I also think his healthcare plan will help small businesses. But maybe this is a category he needs to work on compaigning on; people simply do not know how good he is in this area, kind of like BCCI.

Thank you guys for all of your help. I always go here for help, because I know there'a a lot of brains I can pick! :)

[karynnj]

5. Look at this coincidence

You said: "But maybe this is a category he needs to work on compaigning on" Look at the JohnKerry blog Maryland event - Kerry spoke to 30(?) AA small businessmen.

[TayTay]

6. Some of the compaints are done through misunderstanding

the current Admin in power is no friend to Small Business and doesn't believe in helping small business compete. They believe in ramming through partially thought-out programs that benefit big business and just calling it small business friendly. The poster child for this must be the health care debate. The Rethugs wanted to push the Associations this summer, but they also wanted to clear the mandates and make these things so weak that they basically covered almost nothing.

Some in Small business see this and say, why is John Kerry obstructing small business from joining in associations that can save money. The Rethugs, of course, stop at obstructing and never, ever, mention that the Associations are not small business friedly and don't solve the health care crisis. Sigh!

[kerrygoddess]

7. Here's a tip

Much of the Small Business legislation that has been passed through the Senate and then the House and signed by Bush was actually facilitated by Kerry over the past few years since he was been ranking member on the Senate Small Biz committee.

The Chamber of Commerce tends to lean Republican but there are plenty of Dems who belong in larger urban areas.

[sandnsea]

8. Ignorance and/or greed

To some extent, very small business people are just completely unaware of the various policies and where they come from.

As to the US Chamber, they're always big business and Republican. Local Chambers vary. Small businesses in my area split. It's kind of like this. I live by the Oregon Dunes. There are B&B's that hate the ATV's, even to see them on a trailer in town. "They're just ugly". Yet 1/4 of vehicles in town on any given week-end are hauling ATV's. There are other people who will never vote for Pete DeFazio because 20 years ago he ran on the promise of ending all motorized activity in the dunes and on the beach. After losing the commercial fishing and logging economy, that would have just about destroyed the coast. That's the kind of disconnect Dems are known for. DeFazio hasn't mentioned completely ending ATV's in years and years, btw. He has, however, made some walking only areas and the like.

There's also the regulation and tax aspect, Dems really do push regulations more and they can be difficult to keep up with. Sometimes in a small town, you really do have honorable people managing your water and what not, and increased regulations can be very expensive to implement and not always necessary when you know your water is clean and nothing is getting into it.

The NFIB is the largest small business organization, National Federation of Independent Businesses. They say 80% of their members file personal income taxes and have incomes of around $50,000 a year. Then they feed their propaganda into those members heads, take a vote from them, and pretend their the 'voice of small business'. Well if they praise Bush's HSA and call Kerry's health plan a tax on business, of course people are going to vote for the HSA.

The American Small Business League made the best friend comment.
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20060201/dc-hill.html

Small Business is a place we could make some voting inroads, but I think we'd need a huge campaign that really understood the difference in region as well as business size. Small business can be kind of like middle class and low-income; some businesses considered small actually can be multi-million dollar enterprises. At the same time, I just read that Lynn Cheney filed as a small business for $45,000 of fees she receieved as director for Reader's Digest. I imagine she took a bunch of tax deductions that a salary wouldn't allow her to take.

It is complicated stuff. Kerry has been very good for small business, I just wish more small business owners knew where some of the tax benefits and programs came from.