To the editor:
The 1953 Small Business Act, is intended to be the largest, cost-free economic stimulus plan in U.S. history. There are 2.3 million small businesses in Florida. The Act would create an economic boom by injecting $345 billion into small businesses every year, and those companies would create 2 million new jobs every year to perform those contracts. (Every 1% increase in contracts to small businesses creates 100,000 new jobs.) And the stock market would rise, because it typically follows the monthly Jobs Report, and world markets would rise, because they typically follow our stock market.
Small businesses = 99.9% of all U.S. businesses (34.7 million):
Create 98% of net new jobs.
Employ almost half of all workers.
Generate 44% of GDP.
And pay the most federal income tax. (A 2023 GAO study, below, found that 34% of large, profitable corporations pay zero in federal income tax.) Yet, trillions of dollars over the past 20 years went to big businesses (who don’t create new jobs to perform those contracts), and not to small businesses, who DO create new jobs to perform those contracts.
Big businesses get 97% of federal contracts ($1.455 trillion), $300 billion of which (20%) is supposed to go to small businesses. 23% of contracts ($345 billion) are supposed to go to small businesses. But in reality, only about 3% does ($45 billion).
Every Republican president since Ronald Reagan has tried to shrink or close the Small Business Administration. This small business owner of 35-plus years knows the Republican policies disadvantage small businesses by tipping the scales to reduce fair competition.
Karyn Edison
Fort Myers