It’s been 2 weeks since America voted to “make America great again” and the emotional contrast between anguish and ecstasy is still fresh between the blue and red states and many individual voters. But how did it turn out for small business?
After the election, small business owners were asked to list what they’d like to see as a result of the election. The key issues:
- Healthcare costs
- Energy prices
- Job outsourcing to foreign countries
- Quality of education in the U.S.
- Federal budget deficit
- Situation in Iraq
- War on Terrorism
- General economic condition of the U.S.
- Inflation
- Current level of interest rates
Compare the list with President-Elect Donald Trump’s First 100-Day Plan:
- Impose term limits on member of Congress
- Impose hiring freeze for most federal jobs
- Eliminate/reduce government regulation
- Lift restrictions on the production of job-producing energy reserves
- Renegotiate or withdraw from current trade agreements
- Fix America’s water and environmental infrastructure
- Repeal/replace Obamacare
- 5-year ban on former White House/Congress officials becoming lobbyists
- Lifetime ban on WH officials becoming foreign lobbyists
- Complete ban on election fundraising by foreign lobbyists
While the lists don’t evenly match or compare, there’s little doubt that we’re all in for considerable change throughout 2017 and beyond. As service providers to small business, we believe that the most important tasks promised by our newly-elected President are to:
- Repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act
- Simplify the tax code and lower the business tax rate from 35% to 15%
- Create more lenient banking regulations for both small and big banks
Illegal immigration reform as it pertains to small business will also be an interesting one to watch and will surely take up the news headlines in the coming months. At least for now, small businesses and entrepreneurs are hopeful that the brakes have finally come off that sluggish 4% average growth rate of the last 8 years.
Source:
Gallup
Trump’s First 100 Days