Death tax repeal, health care top small business platform
Release Date: 06/12/00


NEVADA, June 12, 2000 -- Repeal of the federal death tax and making healthcare more affordable top a federal policy blueprint issued today for policymakers and candidates to boost the health and vitality of small business and earn the potent political support of entrepreneurs at the same time.
Jack Sanders, owner of Pahrump Vineyards in Pahrump, joined more than 600other small business owners and advocates from across the country developed the Small Business Referendum for the Future, a policy roadmap for solving the most critical concerns of small business. The small businessmen and women who crafted the Referendum are delegates to the 2000 Congressional Small Business Summit being held this week in Washington, D.C. The event is hosted by NFIB.
"Small business' importance to the economy and its leadership role with local communities combine to make it a powerful force in the policy-making and political arenas," said NFIB President Jack Faris. "This Referendum gives a unified voice to that powerful force - a voice that will play an important role in the policy debate. This Referendum will be in play not just between now and November, but when a new Congress and president get to work in 2001."
Faris predicted small business involvement in the 2000 elections would be "tremendous," noting that a full 47 percent of the electorate in 1996 came from a small business household. They not only vote in high numbers, but they also work to get pro-small business candidates elected he said. Research shows that nearly one in three small business owners who voted in 1998 reported they volunteered for a political candidate. They also "put their money where their mouths are," Faris said. More than one-third of small business owners who voted in 1998 reported they had contributed to political candidates.
In addition to tax relief and affordable health care, the Summit delegates highlighted other priorities, including:
  1. Use the non-Social Security surplus to provide tax relief, pay down the national debt and further shore up Social Security,
  2. Allow workers to invest a portion of Social Security payroll taxes in personal accounts,
  3. Ease the regulatory burden by overhauling OSHA and EPA to emphasize employer assistance instead of enforcement,
  4. Help ease worker shortages and build on the recent repeal of the Social Security earnings limit by providing tax credits for worker training
  5. Sunset the current tax code and replace it with either a flat tax or a consumption tax.

The Referendum will be presented to the congressional leadership, to the major political parties' platform developers, and to presidential candidates.
Summit delegates also overwhelmingly supported Texas Gov. George Bush in a presidential straw poll conducted this morning. Bush received approximately97% of the vote, with Vice President Al Gore receiving approximately 3%.Bush and Gore were unable to attend the Summit in person, but prior to the vote, messages from both candidates were delivered to the delegates.
Contact: Mary Mead Crawford orAngela Jones at 202.554.9000

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