Archive for the 'Government' Category

Yesterday the Senate approved minimum wage increases with tax breaks for small business. To attract Republican support, Senate leaders agreed to extend tax credits and expand deductions for businesses that would be hit hardest by the minimum-wage increase. Those tax breaks, worth $8.3 billion over 10 years, are coupled with a proposal to raise taxes [...]

Dr. Gary North says “Never Pay Retail For College!” He’s got his own You Tube video and website to tell folks how to save up to 70% of the cost of a B.S. degree and get the most value for your money. He estimates (and you can see him do the math on the video [...]

The National Association of Manufacturers, among other businesses, is telling the government: “Fix The Schools”! Most solo entrepreneurs don’t notice the problem as much. They have drive and desire that may overcome any lack of basic skills that stands in their way. But it can become a problem when hiring other people and expanding your [...]

The health insurance-government complex may not be able to keep costs low, but in the time worn model of business “if you can’t beat them, sue them” they tried to get the government to clamp down on a private association of individuals who voluntarily helped each other with their health insurance expenses. The monthly cost [...]

The headline for the article from the Chicago Tribune reads “Home-business rules get tougher”. It’s the article that uses the words “cracking down”. And to be fair to the city, actually Naperville has RELAXED some stipulations on the number of employees who can work at a home business – they’d only allowed one previously. What [...]

President Bush is proposing a new Health Insurance Tax Deduction … up to $7,500 for individuals an $15,000 for families to help bridge the gap between those who have health insurance already paid for by an employer and those on Medicare, Medicaid, and other government funded plans. It’s designed to make coverage more universal by [...]

When you can’t pick on the big guys because they can hire expensive lawyers, pick on the little guys because they’ll knuckle under to your intimidation and can’t hire $300 per hour tax attorneys to fight off the predators. Supposedly by attacking small businesses and home businesses, they’ll get more tax revenue…that’s like going big [...]

The Heartland Institute discussed a Utah plan that would give employees (but not seemingly their employers) an incentive to telecommute. The rationale is that they need a way to financially compensate for the extra traffic and congestion in Salt Lake City during peak traffic hours. And if you’re just a visitor who wanders in by accident, don’t [...]

The Wilson NC WilsonDaily.com online paper documents the struggle of a small, home based computer business to avoid thousands of dollars in fees to comply with local ordinances – even though they don’t seem to apply in this case. Even worse, big “store front” businesses enjoy an exemption to the same rule. If the bureaucrats [...]

The manure is hitting the spreader as they say in farm country in the wake of the House’s passage of a new mimimum wage hike. Small businesses fear that they will be left hurting unless they get relief in other ways. I probably wouldn’t care so much about this if the monkey business of political [...]