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Policy Matters: Bring It On
a weekly column
I have always considered myself to be a peculiar sort, ever since I was a kid and looked forward to a new school year each September.
That's because I like new beginnings and fresh starts.
And that's why I always welcome the New Year. To me, it always feels like a splendid opportunity to start all over again, to build on what has been working for me and to push the burden of what wasn't off my shoulders.
This year, I think I am very far from being alone in looking forward to a fresh start. Pundits refer to the current euphoria, all focused on Inauguration Day, as typical of the post-election honeymoon period. There is probably more than a grain of truth there.
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This week's news briefs
Obama SBA Pick Has Much To Prove
Shortly before Christmas, President-elect Obama gave the politicians and pundits an early gift by making his final few pre-inauguration appointments. One of the nominees in that last batch was Karen Gordon Mills for Administrator of the Small Business Administration. Reaction from policy makers was swift and uniformly positive. Everybody was talking about Mills' excellent qualifications and how her background in venture capital gave her important insights into small business financing that would serve her well in her new job. I think she'll have little trouble with the confirmation process.
Meanwhile, even as the muckety-mucks were expressing uniform delight about the nomination, many in the small business community were not quite so thrilled. They weren't precisely disappointed, either. Reaction might best be described as one huge, collective thought bubble question mark. That and a single reverberating question: Who? They question how well she understands the majority of small businesses, which have nothing to do with venture capital, and whether the nomination indicates that Obama has alarmingly little interest in 'real' small businesses. In general, the consensus seems to be that the small business community is concerned but will give her the benefit of the doubt and wait to see what she does.
Recession and Recovery: What About Micros?
Walking into a new year, you probably don't need me to tell you that the economy seems to be a mess. The third quarter of 2008 marked the initial contraction in GDP for this recession but something tells me it won't be the last. Consumer confidence is down again and small and microbusiness owners are worried that broke customers will lead to reduced sales volume. Not even the fact that gas prices have come down so dramatically seems to have the power to penetrate the economic gloom.
President-elect Barack Obama is scheduled to meet today with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D- CA) to discuss crafting an economic recovery plan that will, they hope, be ready for his signature as soon after Inauguration Day as possible. The plan, as we have all heard in a general sort of way, is a combination of infrastructure spending, aid to cash-strapped states and middle-class tax cuts. One of the big questions is whether there will be any provisions in the package that are directly beneficial to microbusinesses. There is some talk of a temporary reduction in payroll taxes, for example, but no word on whether that will include a similar reduction in self-employment taxes for nonemployers. On the larger question of whether the Obama Administration will continue to ignore the self-employed, it's probably going to be hard to tell until after Inauguration Day.
Small Business Policy Players In 'New' Washington
It's January 2009. Members of the 111th Congress get sworn in tomorrow and the 44th President of the United States will be inaugurated two weeks after that. To paraphrase James Brown, Washington's got a brand new bag. Sort of. There are plenty of familiar faces still, even if they will be wearing new costumes. In the House, Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez (D-NY) retains her position as Chair of the Committee on Small Business. Congressman Steve Chabot (R-OH) will not resume his position as Ranking Member, since he lost his bid for re-election. He will be replaced by Congressman Sam Graves (R-MO).
In the Senate, Mary Landrieu (D-LA) takes over the chairmanship of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship from John Kerry (D-MA), who heads off to chair the Foreign Relations Committee. With Ranking Member Olympia Snowe retaining her position, that will produce history's first standing Senate Committee run entirely by women. It'll be interesting to see whether that fact makes a difference when it comes to moving any number of routine-but-stalled small business bills in the Senate. Landrieu has indicated that her first priority will be to rebuild the SBA and restore its budget, and joins Snowe in calling for the re-elevation of its Administrator to a Cabinet-level position.
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