President Obama on Home Business

By Home Business® Magazine

In this exclusive Home Business® Magazine interview, we find out where President Barack Obama stands on key issues that impact the world of home business. The interview was prepared by having the campaign for Senator Obama provide written answers to the questions below.

Home Business® Magazine (HBM): Home-based businesses comprise the largest segment of the small business sector. In what ways do you plan to encourage the growth of the home-based business sector?

President Obama understands that small businesses are the engines of job growth in the United States. According to the Small Business Administration, 99 percent of employers in the United States are small businesses — many of which are run out of home-offices. Senator Obama wants to lower the burdens on these business owners and give them the tools that they need to innovate and create good jobs.

First, he will lower taxes for small business owners. His plan would eliminate capital gains taxes for all small and start-up businesses to encourage investment and help small businesses grow. He also would provide a new 50% tax credit to small businesses that provide quality health care to their employees.

Second, he will help give small business owners the tools they need to get ahead. For example, Obama supports creating a national network of public-private business incubators. Business incubators facilitate the critical work of entrepreneurs in creating start-up companies. They offer help designing business plans, provide physical space, identify and address problems affecting all small businesses within a given community, and give advice on a wide range of business practices, including reducing overhead costs. Business incubators will engage the expertise and resources of local institutions of higher education and successful private sector businesses to help ensure that small businesses have both a strong plan and the resources for long-term success. Obama will invest $250 million per year to increase the number and size of incubators in disadvantaged communities throughout the country.

Access to capital is also a top concern among small business owners. Barack Obama co-sponsored the bipartisan Small Business Lending Reauthorization and Improvements Act. This bill expands the Small Business Administration’s loan and micro-loan programs which provide startup and long-term financing that small firms cannot receive through normal channels. Obama will work to help more entrepreneurs get loans, expand the network of lenders, and simplify the loan approval process.

HBM: Considering the record gasoline prices, do you have any initiatives or plans to make it easier for Americans to telecommute?

Obama will create a program to inform businesses about the benefits of flexible work schedules; help businesses create flexible work opportunities; and increase federal incentives for telecommuting. Obama will also make the federal government a model employer in terms of adopting flexible work schedules and permitting employees to request flexible arrangements.

HBM: What plans do you have for the federal tax code that might impact people who operate a home-based business?

Barack Obama believes that we need to reduce burdens on small business owners, many of whom are struggling to succeed as health care and energy costs continue to skyrocket. In addition to eliminating capital gains taxes and providing a new health care tax credit for small firms that cover their employees, Barack Obama will support small business owners by providing a $500 “Making Work Pay” tax credit to 150 million workers in America. Self-employed small business owners pay both the employee and the employer side of the payroll tax, and this measure will reduce the burdens of this double taxation. Barack Obama will also eliminate all capital gains taxes on start-up businesses to encourage innovation and job creation.

HBM: What limits do you feel should be placed on Internet commerce?

President Obama is committed to ensuring that the Internet remains an open and vibrant platform for markets to flourish. Obama supports the moratorium on Internet-only taxes and supports efforts to keep the Internet tax free. He also supports the principle of net-neutrality: that network providers should not be allowed to charge fees to privilege the content or applications of some web sites and Internet applications over others. This principle will ensure that the new competitors, especially small or nonprofit speakers, have the same opportunity as big companies to innovate and reach large audiences.

HBM: Do you have any health care initiatives or plans that could benefit small business owners?

Barack Obama understands that the skyrocketing cost of healthcare poses a serious competitive threat to America’s small businesses. Under Obama’s plan, small businesses will not be required to provide healthcare to their employees or contribute to the national exchange on their behalf. Instead, his plan would help small businesses afford healthcare with a new refundable tax credit of up to 50% on premiums paid by small businesses on behalf of their employees. To be eligible for the credit, small businesses will have to offer a quality health plan to all of their employees, and cover a meaningful share of the cost of employee health premiums.

This new credit will give small businesses a strong incentive to offer high quality healthcare to their workers. For small firms that already offer health insurance, the Health Tax Credit will reward them and make it easier for them to continue providing coverage while remaining competitive. And for firms that do not currently offer health insurance, the Health Tax Credit will give them a generous new financial incentive to begin doing so. In addition, his health care plan will lower costs and improve competitiveness by letting small businesses buy low-cost health plans through a national exchange similar to what is offered to members of Congress and covering a portion of the catastrophic costs for small business health plans.

HBM: Please tell us a little about your past work endeavors from a home office or anything related to working from home.

The Obamas lived in a condo in Hyde Park. Many of the reported stories about President Obama’s messy habits come from their time in that home. Michelle Obama has called her husband’s office there, tucked behind the kitchen, “The Hole.”

HBM: Do you have any additional comments you would like to share with our readers?

President Obama believes that America's free market has been the engine of America's great progress. It's created a prosperity that is the envy of the world. It's led to a standard of living unmatched in history. And it has provided great rewards to the innovators and risk-takers who have made America a beacon for science, and technology, and discover.
We are all in this together. From CEOs to shareholders, from financiers to factory workers, we all have a stake in each other's success because the more Americans prosper, the more America prospers. HBM

Special Thanks: Home Business® Magazine would like to thank Nick Shapiro, Obama Campaign Spokesman, for his assistance and support in providing the answers to these questions.