Just after the elections I wrote that I expected more gridlock. In the end, gridlock may really be all we get, but in the meantime I naively forgot the posturing and preening that would go on when a certain class of prima donna’s got elected into a majority, even if they had to do it by pretending to be something they aren’t: ethical, fiscally responsible, and “accountable” to the people.
Right out of the box, Harry Reid is doing everything possible NOT to be accountable to the electorate. In what is a very disturbing sign of the direction of this Congress, the new “leadership’s” fastest move in the Senate is a bill rolling out under the cover of “Lobby Reform”. In reality it looks like a way to tyrannically squash all dissent from the grassroots. You see - it actively works to “regulate” organizations that get people to “Contact your elected representatives.” Right now it’s religious groups that are up in arms, but when small business people want to mobilize action in Congress, it will hit us squarely in the chops. For all we know if a blog tells people to contact Congress under this new law, your blog could be in violation of some idiotic federal regulation designed to circumvent the 1st Amendment. All the people concerned about the Patriot Act appear to simply be cooing over this assault.
In a pretense of progress, there also seems to be movement on eliminating or fixing the Alternative Minimum Tax as the Entrepreneurial Mind Blog talks about. The AMT was designed to make sure that all the bazillionaires would pay some federal income tax. But the clumsily crafted law is now biting ordinary people in the posterior thanks to long term legislative inaction and government sponsored inflation. There’s been talk of this for the last 12 years but now that Harry and Nancy are in charge, they are ready to do what has been talked about so they can take the credit, especially since it’s hitting Blue districts the hardest. Red states are just trying to make a living still.
AMT reform will be excellent for small business if they have any money left over after paying for taxes, regulatory compliance, and - of course - health insurance.
Why AMT reform wasn’t passed years ago is simply a testimony to the fact that the Republicans approached leadership in Congress like an elite private school volley ball game… they didn’t mind falling in the dirt to win a point and get elected, but after the volley ball game it was time for both teams to just retire to the nearest country club, relax, and be friends while we the butlers went about our business. Legislate? Reform? Boring!
The House has passed a bill to phase in a minimum wage increase to $7.25 over a period of years. This is probably no big deal in places like Florida where the wages are already at these levels but the taxes are so high that people are picking up and leaving anyway. Many businesses are already paying above the minimum to attract workers. But in other places where you still don’t have to make $100,000 to be in the lower middle class, increasing a federally mandated minimum wage above what the free market offers anyway will reduce access to entry level jobs. But I shouldn’t worry, certainly there’s a “plan” in place to dilute the currency more so that by the time the $7.25 kicks in we’ll all feel we’re playing with Monopoly(tm) Money anyway.
And in a sign that even small businesses are desperate to the point of giving up hope in a free society to solve its own problems, the NFIB now believes Senator Ted Kennedy has answers about solving the health care crisis. I can only assume NFIB read the bumper sticker that goes “Since I gave up hope, I feel alot better” and took it as an omen.
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