Obama & McCain Battle for the Small Business Vote Barack Obama’s Plans John McCain’s Plans Sound Off! What do you care about the most as a small business owner?

2008 is a landmark year in politics. No matter who wins the White House, history will be made. I’m excited about that, because as of November 5, a glass ceiling will be permanently broken in the United States of America. I may or may not like the candidate who breaks that ceiling, but I cannot help but be happy about the fact that it will be broken.

Ever since the 2000 election, I’ve known just how important it is to be active in politics. Al Gore lost the election to George Bush over 537 votes. It struck me at that time that one person could influence 537 votes in a campaign. So one person can theoretically alter our political history.

2008 is also a landmark for Sparkplugging in that I haven’t been willing to talk politics on my blog before now. It’s too divisive, too polarizing. But this election will affect us as entrepreneurs and small business owners – and I believe it is important for you to know how your vote will affect your business. So today I kick off a series of articles to help educate all of us on how each candidate plans on changing the way we work and live. I’ll be focusing specifically on the topics of interest to very small businesses, 1-3 employees, and for entrepreneurs/startups.

Obama on Taxes Affecting Small Businesses

• Democrats have a reputation for raising taxes, and Obama will do that to small businesses – but only if you make more than $250K a year.
• He is also considering imposing Social Security payroll taxes on salaries and wages above $250,000 in the range of 2% to 4%, which may or may not affect you (but will affect larger businesses much more).
• The top two tax rates would revert back to 36% and 39.6%. But roughly 97 percent of all small businesses would not be affected at all by increases in the top two tax rates (source).
• Obama has some tax cuts planned as well – he will eliminate all capital gains for small business start ups and make the Research and Development tax credit permanent.

Obama on Workplace Issues

While most of these issues are more important to employees than to entrepreneurs, they could affect you as an employer. They also give an indication of what the candidate’s priorities are, which will influence other decisions affecting small businesses

• Obama wants to expand FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act) to 25 employees (from current 50 threshold). Expand the number of purposes for use (elder care, kids’ academic activities, etc.).
• He will raise the minimum wage and index to compensate for inflation.

Obama on Health Care

If you think health care has little to do with small business, then read on – these could greatly impact your expenses if you have employees. But like the FMLA, there may be a minimum number of employees your business has to have in order to be required to comply with these new laws.

• A new business mandate requiring businesses to buy health insurance coverage, contribute to private coverage, or contribute a portion of payroll toward public plan: “play or pay”.
• Small businesses would be able to buy into a national federal pool to receive a refundable tax credit up to 50% on premiums paid for employees.
• The government would reimburse employers’ health plans paying for a portion of the catastrophic cost they incur above a threshold if they use the savings to reduce the cost of workers’ premiums.

Obama on Immigration

• If you employ illegal immigrants, be prepared for a crackdown and get ready to electronically verify your employees.

Obama on Federal Spending

• If you do business with the federal government, there will be a new mandatory bid process in place for any project or contract over $25,000.

Obama on Small Business Initiatives

Most important of all are the candidates’ plans for how to support the startup and growth of new small businesses. Here are Obama’s plans:

• Establish a small business and microenterprise initiative for rural America – 20% tax credit for $50,000 investments in small businesses
• Expand the SBA (Small Business Administration) and micro-loan programs
• Implement a Women-Owned Business contracting program
• Strengthen SBA capital access programs directed at minority-owned businesses

Learn More About Barack Obama

I DO NOT claim to know all that I could know about any of the candidates. So I encourage you to leave a comment with your own information and ideas – but please be civil and please cite sources if you are going to state facts. I’ll warn you now that any attacks on me or my readers will be deleted immediately. But you can attack ideas all you want.

You can learn more about Obama at his website, and additionally you can find him nearly everywhere on the web, like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, LinkedIn, BlackPlanet, and even Flickr.

Many thanks to the Small Business & Entrepreneurial Council for their candidate campaign report, which was the main source of information for this article. The SBEC is a lobbying group dedicated to influencing legislation and public policy as an advocate for small businesses and entrepreneurs.

Next up in this series will be highlights of where John McCain stands on his campaign promises that will affect you.

And if you are sold on Obama, Momsational has the scoop on how to get a Free Obama Bumper Sticker!