Big business is doing fine

“Big business is doing fine in many places – they get the loans they need, they can deal with all the regulation. They know how to find ways to get through the tax code, save money by putting various things in the places where there are low tax havens around the world for their businesses.”

Those are the words of GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney spoken in Minnesota yesterday.

If big business is doing fine, why aren’t they hiring?  Why are small businesses with fewer than 50 employees accounting for about 50% of all new hires every month this year while businesses with over 500 workers accounting for less than 10% of the new workers. 

We have been continuously told that regulations were stopping big business from hiring.  Now Romney says that is not the case because “they can deal with all the regulation.” 

We also know from survey after survey that small businesses don’t think regulations are a big problem and obviously they aren’t because small businesses are leading in job creation.  So Romney’s comment that small businesses are being “crushed” by regulations is simply not factual.

What is holding back small business growth besides the number one problem of lack of consumer demand is lack of financing.  Ever since the economy crashed due to the reckless gambling of Wall Street, financial institutions have severely restricted loans and lines of credit to small businesses making it extremely difficult for these businesses to grow even as consumer demand is picking up.

But not so for big businesses.  Romney admits that they have no problem in getting loans.

So what is holding big business back from investing in American jobs?

Romney makes that very clear—GREED. These multinational corporations and big business giants simply are hording their profits in “low tax havens around the world”, tax avoidance tactics that are available only to big corporations and wealthy individuals.

And Romney knows what he is talking about because his old company Bain Capital is deep into hiding money offshore.  Today’s news reveals a new tax gimmick involving offshore tax havens used by Romney’s investments in Bain Capital and others to hide even more money from being taxed appropriately—blockers.   

My friend Rebecca Wilkins, senior counsel with Citizens for Tax Justice, told ABC news what a blocker is.  “The blocker is a paper company that serves as a buffer between the investor and the fund holding the investments, Wilkins explained.  That means the investment income can be counted as a dividend and in some cases avoid income tax.”

"It just confirms what everyone already believes about the tax system -- that it's rigged. That the rules are rigged to favor the well off,” said Wilkins.

Every tax dollar big business and the wealthy hide from U.S. taxes so they don’t have to pay for government services that they enjoy (military defense, roads & bridges, education, the courts, etc.) is an extra tax dollar small businesses and the average American has to pay to subsidize the tax evaders.

We’re all paying big business’s fair share of taxes.  No wonder they are doing fine.