During a visit to Hoboken on Monday, Rep. Albio Sires (D-13th Dist.) touted a number of Democratic economic initiatives to local business leaders and elected officials, including health care reform, job creation, and reducing the national debt.
Recalling his past as a small businessman, Sires said, “When you’re talking about health insurance costs, trouble paying your taxes, I know exactly what you’re talking about. I did that for 22 years.”
“We know business owners like you are the heart of the economy in this country.”—Rep. Albio Sires
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“Over the past year,” he said, “my colleagues in Congress and I have been working hard to rebuild our economy through job creation and investment in small business, because we know business owners like you are the heart of the economy in this country.”
Washington legislators have created a number of measures, Sires said, to help small businesses stay afloat and remain profitable during the economic downturn. Specifically, he pointed to expanded loan guarantees, tax cuts, and the controversial health care reform law as initiatives that will help small businesses “invest, expand, and hire workers.”
Chamber returns to Hoboken
The luncheon was hosted by the Hoboken Chamber of Commerce, something the organization plans to make an annual event. After many years without an active chamber, local business leaders are trying to resurrect the organization.
“The chamber just drifted away,” said Chamber President Brian Battaglia on Monday. “There was a lack of interest. Government wasn’t enthusiastic about there being a strong Chamber of Commerce. Then there was the economy. But finally we said we wanted to get the chamber rolling again.”
About 70 people attended Monday’s luncheon with Sires, the Chamber’s third event. The two other events were a business social at the W Hotel and a marketing seminar at the Hoboken Business Center.
Defending health reform
Zeroing in on one of the most controversial pieces of legislation to come out of Washington in a generation, Sires defended health care reform as a necessary component of economic recovery. Although critics have argued the measure is too expensive, Sires said it makes it easier for small business to afford health coverage for their employees.
“We enacted comprehensive health care reform that will be able to help you with the escalating costs of health care that is thwarting our businesses and putting them at a disadvantage [in the international marketplace].”
Although critics of health reform have argued the measure is too expensive, Sires defended the law, saying it makes it easier for small business to afford health coverage for their employees.
Because many other industrialized Western nations provide some form of socialized health care for their citizens, businesses in these countries do not have to pay for health insurance for their employees. In the U.S., however, companies are faced with a dilemma. Ones that offer health benefits pay all or a portion of rising insurance costs out of their profits. Those that don’t offer health benefits can’t attract and retain good workers.
The argument is that this dilemma puts U.S. companies at a disadvantage in the international market.
Under the health reform law, Sires said, new tax credits are already available to small businesses that offer insurance. Companies that have 25 workers or less and average wages of $50,000 or less will get a tax credit for a portion of the premiums paid by the company.
Smaller businesses, those with 10 employees or less and with an average wage of $25,000 or less, can deduct 34 percent of what they pay for insurance costs. The maximum credit under the law will rise to 50 percent in 2014.
More needs to be done
Sires also defended another controversial piece of legislation, the $819 billion 2009 stimulus package, formally known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Critics last year charged that the legislation was too weak and poorly structured to have a meaningful effect on the economy.
However, the congressman said there is now “a general consensus that it prevented an economic collapse…If you listen to reasonable people [they agree], the stimulus package has provided a stabilization to this country’s economy.”
He said 500,000 jobs have been created since the stimulus package was passed. (However, Sires noted that this figure seems unimpressive when compared to all the jobs that have been lost. According to him, the U.S. lost 700,000 in the last quarter of 2008 alone.)
Recognizing that job creation in the small business sector is critical to pulling out of the recession, Sires said job creation will continue to be a centerpiece of Democratic policymaking in Washington.
In the 15 years prior to the start of the recession, small businesses created more than 93 percent of new jobs in this country.
Still, he acknowledged that job growth has been slow and more work needs to be done in this area.
He also said the national debt “is something we have to take under control. It’s very, very high. What I gather from the [Democratic] caucus in Washington, this is something we’re going to be focusing on later this year.”
Polls have indicated that voters are increasingly concerned about the debt.
To get involved in the local Chamber of Commerce, check out www.hobokenchamber.com.
E-mail E. Assata Wright at awright@hudsonreporter.com.