Q&A: Rep. James Talent
Chairman of the Small Business Committee cites CA
Editor’s Note: Missouri Representative Jim Talent is a fourth term
Republican who represents Missouri’s second district. Talent was first elected
to the U.S. Congress in 1993, after serving eight years in the Missouri House of
Representatives. He quickly rose in the leadership and in 1997 was named
chairman of the House Small Business Committee, which oversees the Small
Business Administration and many issues related to small business. Talent has
been an activist for tax-relief and easing of regulations for small business.
Under his leadership, the committee established the new Rural Enterprises,
Business Opportunities, and Special Small Business Problems Subcommittee to give
focus to issues affecting rural small businesses, including agricultural
enterprises.
CA’s Self-Employed Country magazine interviewed Talent
to get his outlook on prospects for small business legislation this
session.
Self-Employed Country (SEC): You’ve been an advocate for tax reform and last year introduced the “Small Employer Tax Relief Act of 1999”. Tell us what you feel are the most important priority areas of tax reform for small business, and how you see prospects for passage this year.
There are a number of areas where we can make improvements to the current tax
situation. We made some progress last year, but we’ve got some more work to do.
I believe that eliminating or reducing the
death tax would be the most
prominent on the minds of many people. The death tax is the stupidest of all
taxes and it penalizes a person for working hard and investing in the future of
their business so that they
have something to leave their family. It runs
counter to common sense and we’ll be fighting in Congress to rid the tax system
of this burdensome nightmare. The current $650,000 exemption from death taxes is
increased to $675,000 in 2000, on its way to $1,000,000 in 2006. I am hopeful
that we will be able to speed up that relief and increase the exemption this
year.
As well, I am pleased that we just passed (out of the House), the elimination
of the marriage penalty tax. When we’re fighting to keep our family values
strong and intact, it serves little or no value to tell a man and a woman that
if you want to marry that is fine, but if you do, then you’ll pay for it. For
example, in the most common marriage tax penalty, the standard deduction for
couples ($7,350) is $1,450 less than double the standard deduction for singles
($4,400 + $4,400=$8,800). The President has threatened to veto this very
pro-family legislation, but I am hopeful that with as much bi-partisan support
as the legislation
received, that he will be able to put politics aside and
give folks some real, honest-to-goodness relief.
SEC: Health care reforms are of keen interest to small businesses, whose cost of insurance seems to keep rising and the rate of uninsured people also correspondingly seems to keep rising. Will small business owners, employees and the self-employed see health care relief over the coming 12 months, or do you expect it to wait until after the election? Where would you prioritize changes needed?
Back in 1997, under the Balanced Budget Act, we
made some real progress toward leveling the playing field between small business
and corporate America when we passed legislation to allow for 100 percent full
deductibility for health care for small business owners and the self-employed.
However, it wasn’t immediate and in the meantime, the number of the uninsured
has continued to grow. This is especially
troubling for small business
owners, employees and their families because they make up 60 percent of the 44
million uninsured in our country. However, last fall, we passed the Quality Care
for the Uninsured Act, which was a part of the overall Health Care Reform Bill.
The bill includes some excellent provisions that allow small business to take
advantage of opportunities to gain increased access to health care. As a member
of the Conference Committee that is working with the Senate to reconcile their
version and our version of the bill, I’ll be focusing on the access provisions-
like Association Health Plans— that allow individuals to join with others in
associations to gain health care benefits. After all, health care reform means
nothing if you don’t have access to health insurance.
As far as the timeline we are on for passage, we have started meeting to
reconcile the bill, and because health care is on the forefront of so many, I
believe that there will be some progress toward reform made this year. But
without a doubt, providing greater access to the uninsured will be the focus
that I will fight for until the very end.
SEC: In November, you and Rep. John Thune, (R-S.D.), introduced H.R. 3513, the Value-Added Development for American Agriculture Bill. Tell us what this legislation would do and how farmers would benefit.
There is a crisis in farm country and you don’t
have to look far to see that the problems have the potential to touch each and
every one of us in America, from the producer to the consumer. Consolidation
of
markets, bad weather and low prices have forced producers and Congress to
look at what is working, what isn’t working and to give some serious thought to
what can be done to help offer some sort of safety net against tough times -
much like the ones that we are experiencing right now. That is what is so
incredible about the Value-Added Development Act for American Agriculture (HR
3513—VADAAA). The legislation is designed to give producers the freedom and
ability to hedge against those tough times by making both technical and
financial assistance available to producers who are interested in starting their
own value-added endeavors. You see, after a number of hearings held by the
Committee to examine the challenges facing agriculture, we found that too many
times, folks wanted to get involved in things like soybean crush mills, ethanol
plants and meat processing plants, but they didn’t have a good resource to get
the business and technical expertise that they need to be successful.
I believe that VADAAA is a tool to help producers reach up that marketing
chain and grab more of the profit for themselves and for their communities. Best
of all, these producers will not be dependent on
the market, because they
will be more concerned with what they are making at the crush mill or at the
processing plant and it will offer some freedom from the fear that so many have
been feeling lately because of low prices. In addition,
we have been working
on a tax credit component to go with the legislation and we’ll be working this
spring with
the Ag Committee and the grassroots organizations in business and agriculture to showcase the benefits of this legislation.
SEC: What do you see as the most important accomplishments of the Small Business Committee and Congress during your term, and what do you see are the key priorities for the future?
I believe that there have been many legislative
victories for us during my time as Chairman of the Small Business Committee.
Several significant ones include reducing some of the paperwork and regulatory
burdens that stifle so many small businesses. Another would include the
establishment of the Rural Enterprises, Business Opportunities and Special Small
Business Problems Subcommittee that concentrates on how issues affect small
business folks like the family farmer (it is worthwhile to note that 98% of all
farms are small businesses), because it offers an opportunity for producers to
participate in a dialogue about
issues affecting their business. Finally, I
believe that pushing for and receiving some significant tax relief, health care
deductibility for the uninsured has also been a positive outcome of the time I
have spent working on House Committee on Small Business.
As far as priorities for the future, whether it is relief from government intrusion, regulatory and fiscal freedom, or increased opportunities to cultivate America’s entrepreneurial spirit, I am hopeful that the future of small business and the House Committee on Small Business will be one of bountiful prosperity for America’s small business owner.