House Republican Whip Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) on Friday is leading other senior Republicans in promising small-business workers that the GOP has "got your back" in the tax rate debate taking place between President Obama and Republican and Democratic leaders in Congress.
I hear POTUS is heading to PA today. I wanted to make sure he heard this #SmallBiz owner's opinion on #TaxHikes - kom.io/YcKmDr
Obama is traveling to Hatfield, Pa., on Friday, where he will tour the Rodon Group's toy manufacturing facility and continue making the case that Congress needs to accept his deal on tax rates before Christmas.
Obama will argue that holiday sales will decrease if Congress does not pass the extension of the current middle-class tax rates. Republicans want to pass the extension for the middle-class rates as well as the rates applying to families making more than $250,000 a year; Obama wants to allow those rates to increase when they expire at the end of the year.
McCarthy released a video that highlights another Pennsylvania business, Gorski Engineering, to make the case that raising taxes on "job creators" at small businesses like owner Jerry Gorski's will actually harm the middle class more.
“The president is heading to Pennsylvania today in full campaign mode to make the argument to the American people that tax rate increases are the only solution to our nation's economic woes,” McCarthy said in a statement. “He's wrong. What our country needs is a boost in economic growth so our job creators, like Jerry Gorski, can start hiring again. Tax rate increases don't stimulate economic growth - they drain small businesses of the capital they need to grow and expand their operation. Small businesses employ the majority of Americans and are the engines of our economy. They will also be the most adversely affected by an increase in tax rates."
Although Obama has been proactive in using social media to make his case ahead of fiscal negotiations, Republicans in Congress are fighting back with videos like this that seek to tell the stories of real small-business owners protesting the proposal to raise their taxes. Several other Republicans are promoting the video on Twitter on Friday.
The GOP has some convincing to do when it comes to public opinion, as well. A ABC/Washington Post poll this week found that 60 percent of those surveyed support raising taxes on incomes over $250,000 a year.
"This notion of $250,000 being the top 2 percent or the wealthy people in America ignores the way most small businesses work in America,” Gorski said in the video. "We went through every bit of money that we set aside for a rainy day but it’s been a long rainy day. And now our company has figured out how to survive in this economy and the first thing we want to do with any income I have is tax it? That’s uncertainty.”
