07/ 25/ 2006
by Todd Stottlemyer, NFIB President and CEO
If you were one of the hundreds of NFIB activists who flocked to Washington, D.C., in mid-June for the 2006 NFIB National Small-Business Summit, congratulations, and thank you for the hard work you did on Capitol Hill. I urge the rest of you to plan to join us for the next Summit in 2008.
The 2006 Summit could not have come at a better time. Small business continues to be the nation's job-creating powerhouse. And a recent NFIB National Small-Business Poll found that small-business owners overwhelmingly agree that positive change can result when good people participate in public policy and in the political process. If the effort of the members who were in D.C. is any indication, we will see plenty of positive change ahead.
The folks who took the time away from their businesses to come to the Summit carried your messages to Capitol Hill—that you want affordable health insurance for your employees, that you want repeal of the death tax for small business and that you want government to live within its means and prioritize spending.
In spite of the failure of the Senate to pass Small-Business Health Plan legislation last May, we did get 55 votes—a majority—but because of Senate rules, a majority was still not good enough. You were the key to that moral victory. Your letters, e-mails and one-on-one meetings with your senators put us within five votes of moving the legislation forward.
But NFIB is not about moral victories. We will not give up until every small business in America has access to affordable health insurance. At the Summit, Sens. Mike Enzi and Ben Nelson—champions of Small-Business Health Plans—promised to do all they can to get another vote this year.
Another issue critical to small business is permanent repeal of the death tax. There again, a majority of senators voted for it in early June. We got 57 votes—just short of the 60 necessary to proceed under Senate rules. Even as NFIB activists swarmed the Capitol, leaders of the House and Senate were talking about a compromise. NFIB members delivered the message that any compromise on the death tax must include a significant exemption for small business, one that will allow you—now and in the future—to pass on your business without being subject to the tax.
A growing concern of a number of you is the rapid increase in government spending, particularly entitlements. Certainly we recognize that the unforeseen events of 9/11 have required higher defense and homeland security spending. But we let lawmakers know that they must find other places to cut spending. The federal budget should be subject to the same rule that you apply to your family and business budgets: Everything is not a priority.
Members who attended the Summit delivered a message that needs to be heard in Washington, D.C., and the state capitals: Small business means jobs, and a vote against small business is a vote against the majority of American workers. The small-business agenda is America's agenda. We will all have another chance to drive that point home on Nov. 7.
