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Politicians routinely praise small business as the source of all good. In reality, small businesses, just like large businesses, are a mixed bag. While they can be a source of economic dynamism and good jobs, many small business owners rip off their workers and their customers, cheat on their taxes, and contribute little of value to the economy before they fail.
It is the job of the media to report on small business with clear eyes, not just repeat happy-talk nonsense from politicians. Therefore, it was disappointing to read a NYT article on a package of special loans and tax breaks for small businesses that began:
"Perhaps the last best hope of Democrats to pass legislation aimed at creating jobs before the November elections seemed to be crumbling in the Senate on Wednesday as Republicans signaled that they would block a bill to expand government lending programs and grant an array of tax breaks to small businesses."
Why would the article assume that the bill is "aimed at creating jobs?" Yes, this is what the politicians said about the bill. But --- hold onto your hats boys and girls -- politicians sometimes say things that are not true.
An alternative explanation is that politicians want to give money to small businesses, a constituency that can be very influential in many upcoming congressional races. Many of the features of this package, such as tax breaks that apply to past actions, look more like measures to give businesses money than to create jobs.
Rather than attributing motives, it would be more appropriate to simply report the bill's contents and what various parties say about it.
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Then the libertarians jump into their tax discounted Hummers sitting on tax subsidized farms, loaded with negative externality guns, drive on government provided roads using subsidized gas while consuming government cleaned air and water, on their way to a Teabagger meeting to profess the virtues of how much their one-employee small business adds true private value to the economy and is struggling valiantly to survive the onslaught of socialism.
Meanwhile, the real small people, labor and businesses trying to break free from the circular stranglehold of big corporations and the ultra rich continue to get the shaft, insulted as freeloading freeriding bloodsuckers who dare challenge the nanny state that keeps the rich richer and the poor poorer.