This Election, Make America Stronger

You’re running your business, balancing work and family. Life is challenging. Your plate is full. So why carve out time for politics this year? Because the decisions made in this year’s election will have a huge impact on you, your business, your community and your family.

The federal government’s finances are a mess. After attacking Pres. George W. Bush as “irresponsible” over deficit spending, Pres. Obama has added in three years as much debt as his predecessor did in eight, bringing the national debt to more than $15 trillion.

It’ll only get worse as we face an avalanche of spending on entitlement programs, as baby boomers continue to retire and collect their Social Security checks and Medicare benefits. Social Security goes bankrupt in 2036 and the hospital portion of Medicare runs out of money in 2021. Reforms must be made to ensure these safety nets exist for our children in a form our country can afford.

Healthcare coverage has always been a headache for small business. Obama’s healthcare overhaul is making it a bigger one. Virtually every promise made about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is turning out to be false. Premiums are going up, not down by the $2,500 a year the president promised. Healthcare costs are rising, not dropping. And it won’t reduce the deficit: House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan shows it will add more than $701 billion in red ink to the debt over the next decade.

Then there are taxes. Pres. Obama wants the top bracket to go up. But the Internal Revenue Service points out small business would get whacked: Nearly 48 percent of the net income of sole proprietorships, partnerships and S corporations went to households who’d pay higher taxes if their rates increased.

The last three years have seen an increasing amount of regulation from Washington. The Environmental Protection Agency is making it more difficult to make or sell in America today. New financial regulators are making it harder to get small business loans and even for community bankers to stay in business. The federal government is meddling in virtually every part of our businesses, and not for the best.

The country faces big choices, choices that will be made by the men and women elected this November. Your business will be affected by these choices. So you have the right—some would say the responsibility—to be involved.

Small business involvement in 2010 helped bring about a major change in the Congress, electing a record number of small business owners. That same level of small business involvement and passion in this election could result in a new president, a new Senate makeup and two more years of a small-business-friendly House.

You don’t get the government you pay for. You get the government you elect. The choice is yours: Stay focused only on your business and suffer the consequences of bad policy, or get involved and change the course of the country, making America stronger and better.

Karl Rove, a small business owner and NFIB member, served as the White House deputy chief of staff during Pres. George W. Bush’s administration. He is a contributor to Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, and author of the memoir Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight (Threshold Editions, 2010).

The small business vote matters! Get involved in the 2012 election, and have your voice heard. Visit www.NFIB.com/elections to hear from candidates, take surveys and find out which congressional candidates win NFIB’s approval.

See Karl Rove in person! Register for the NFIB Small Business Summit, May 14 to 16 in Washington, D.C., at www.NFIB.com/summit.