In her desperation to shed her far-left image, Kamala Harris is doing her best impression of a small business champion. In Wednesday’s remarks in Pittsburgh announcing new economic plans, she correctly yet deceptively called small businesses the heroes of the economy and pillars of the community.
However, her actions in office speak louder than her words on the stump. And JCN’s new polling shows small businesses aren’t fooled by her performance. It finds Trump leads Harris by 12 points among small business owners nationwide.
Make no mistake: Harris is no friend of small businesses. She had four years in Congress and four years as vice president to advance her newfound small business proposals. She chose not to because she doesn’t really believe in them. She’s just pretending to support small businesses now when it’s convenient.
While in office, Harris pursued policies that devastated small businesses and their customers. As a result, small business and consumer sentiment has plummeted. Voters must focus on this record, not her rhetoric.
Harris cast the tiebreaking votes for more than $3 trillion in reckless spending that’s responsible for the current cost-of-living crisis. The Biden-Harris administration has taken more than 250 actions impeding domestic energy production, starting on Day one when it canceled the Keystone XL pipeline.
As a result, inflation is up 20%, electricity prices are up 30%, and gas is up 45% during the Biden-Harris term. Interest rates remain high, and access to credit is low.
Harris has also supported seemingly every far-left environmental and labor regulation that makes it harder for small businesses to operate. She supports radical labor legislation known as the PRO Act that would forcibly unionize countless small businesses. Her administration implemented a mandate requiring Americans to drive expensive and unreliable electric vehicles. And she has attacked the franchise system.
Harris’ policy proposals would only make matters worse. She wants to raise taxes on small businesses by 25% or more depending on how much they earn and how they’re structured. She wants to let the Tax Cuts and Job Act expire, which gives small businesses a 20% tax deduction.
She supports raising the corporate tax rate, which more than one million small businesses pay, by 33%. She also wants to tax small businesses and family farms when the owner dies, making it impossible in many cases for heirs to take over.
The centerpiece of Harris’ economic plan is government price controls on food. This move would massively disrupt affected businesses just trying to maintain their margins due to the inflation she’s caused.
Never mind that the data doesn’t support her price-gouging claim, with wholesale costs rising in tandem with consumer prices. Harris is attempting to evade responsibility for the punishing food costs she’s responsible for.
“Greedflation” is the leper’s bell of a big government opponent of small businesses.
Small businesses are worse off than they were five years ago. Rather than own up to her mistakes, Harris believes she can rebrand herself by picking up the small business mantle. But her record and support for massive tax hikes and price controls should scare away every small business owner and independent voter. A San Francisco liberal never loses her stripes.
