As Harris-Walz Release Plan to Boost American Small Businesses, Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda Would Only Benefit Greedy Corporate Executives and Wealthiest Americans 

In response to Vice President Harris’ latest economic plan to support small businesses and invest in entrepreneurs, DNC National Press Secretary ⁨Emilia Rowland⁩ released the following statement:

“Trump has sold out, stiffed, and screwed over small businesses his whole life – from shortchanging small businesses throughout his failed business career to slashing funding for small businesses and their employees, making it easier for lenders to charge small businesses sky-high interest rates, and leaving entrepreneurs out to dry as president. This election is a choice between Trump’s Project 2025 plans to go even further by rigging the economy for Wall Street at the expense of Main Street, versus Vice President Harris’ plan to increase the small business tax deduction ten fold, cut red tape, and expand resources for entrepreneurs. Even a Fox Business host and the RNC chair seem to agree with Harris-Walz’s plan to boost our entire economy while spurring massive nationwide small business growth.”

Donald Trump’s first term abandoned entrepreneurs and small businesses and a secould term could be even more devastating:

• Trump slashed federal support for small businesses and their employees, significantly stalling business applications and leaving hopeful entrepreneurs out to dry.
• About 200,000 American businesses permanently closed under Trump during the pandemic, and during this crisis, Trump completely botched federal support for small businesses.
• Trump’s MAGA tax scam prioritizes his billionaire buddies and their big corporations at the expense of small business owners.
• The Trump Administration’s budget called for significant cuts or complete elimination of programs that support small business owners.
• Throughout his business career, Trump repeatedly ripped off small businesses and contractors and regularly put off paying his bills.
• Despite small business owners’ increasing need for child care, Trump’s handpicked running mate JD Vance attacked investments in child care and called universal day care a “class war against normal people.”
• Trump and his Project 2025 allies would rip health coverage away from millions of small business workers and end crucial disaster assistance for small businesses.

Here’s a breakdown of Vice President Harris’ new plan to boost small businesses:

• Provide a dramatic tenfold expansion of tax relief for starting a small business, expanding the startup expense deduction for small businesses from $5,000 to $50,000 to help meet the needs faced by American entrepreneurs when starting a business.
• Cut unnecessary red tape, making it easier for small businesses to file taxes, reducing barriers to getting occupational licenses across states, and reducing burdensome small business regulations.
• Set a goal of 25 million new business applications in her first term – exceeding the record 19 million new business applications already seen under the Biden-Harris Administration. Vice President Harris’ goal would generate over 10 million more business applications than Trump saw during his term. 

Today in New Hampshire, Vice President Harris met with local small business owners to discuss her plan for a new way forward for all Americans.         

Axios: “Harris readies aggressive tax boost for new small businesses”

“The latest proposal includes a tenfold increase in the tax deduction for starting a small business — from $5,000 to $50,000.

“In an effort to reduce taxes, new businesses will be allowed to wait to claim that deduction once they turn a profit.

“The proposal also includes measures to cut red tape by developing a standard deduction for small businesses and reducing barriers to getting occupational licenses across state lines.”

Politico: “Harris targets small business tax break in contrast with Trump’s corporate tax cuts”

“Kamala Harris rolled out a new plan for small business tax breaks, as the vice president looks to contrast her economic agenda with former President Donald Trump ahead of next week’s debate.

“The proposal’s focus on tax breaks for small businesses attempts to craft a contrast with Trump, who has called for lowering the corporate tax rate, as well as extending and expanding his 2017 tax law.”

“Harris’ proposal, released on Tuesday, calls for significantly expanding the tax deduction for start-up expenses from $5,000 to $50,000, while also setting the goal of 25 million new small-business applications during her first term, according to a Harris campaign official granted anonymity to describe details of the plan. The plan also proposes reducing barriers to getting occupational licenses and developing a standard tax deduction for small businesses.”

Bloomberg: “Harris to Expand Small Business Tax Relief to Boost Startups”

“Harris also plans to initiate a small business expansion fund to enable community banks to cover interest costs when emerging enterprises are trying to expand, particularly in regions that have historically struggled to get investments. If elected, Harris will also pledge to ensure that one-third of federal contract dollars go to small businesses by expanding opportunities in rural areas and underserved communities.”

Wall Street Journal: “Kamala Harris to Propose Expansion of Small-Business Startup Tax Deduction”

USA Today: “Harris to propose $50k tax break for small businesses in economic plan”

Throughout her time as Vice President, Kamala Harris has had a record of championing American small business:

White House Fact Sheet: “Vice President Harris to Announce Support to Help Historically Underserved Entrepreneurs Tap into Bidenomics-Fueled Small Business Boom”

“Today, Vice President Kamala Harris will announce the 43 winners of the $125 million American Rescue Plan-funded Capital Readiness Program (CRP) awards competition, critical funding that will help underserved entrepreneurs launch and scale their small businesses—a key pillar of Bidenomics.”

The Hill: “First, the White House will invest $50 million of American Rescue Plan funds in over 10,000 small businesses. The administration will also issue $50 billion worth of small business loans this year, including large increases for ‘underserved businesses.’”

Forbes: “In each of the last three fiscal years (FYs), the Biden-Harris Administration has increased spending on contracts to small businesses, with small businesses receiving nearly $163 billion in federal contracting dollars in FY 2022, $70 billion of which went to small businesses owned and controlled by socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.”

Statement, Small Business Administration: “Since the start of the Biden-Harris administration, there have been 18.1 million new business applications with an average 443,000 filed each month – a rate over 90% faster than pre-pandemic averages. Having already achieved the first, second, and third strongest years of new business applications on record, President Biden’s economy remains on track for its fourth consecutive year of historic business filings. The U.S. economy has grown more under President Biden than at this point in any presidential administration in the last quarter century.”

Trump is campaigning on an economic plan that would once again leave behind hard working Americans, drastically increase inflation, and hurt everyone but the wealthy elite.

Brendan Duke Center for American Progress: “Trump just took his $2,500 tax increase for a typical family and made it a ~$3,900 tax increase with this proposal.

“This would likely swamp the effects of “no tax on tips” or “no tax on Social Security” for the vast majority of Americans, retirees, and tipped employees.”

Axios: “Trump’s inflation bomb: How his second-term plans could make it worse”

Wall Street Journal: “Economists Say Inflation Would Be Worse Under Trump Than Biden”

USA Today: “According to a Moody’s study, Trump’s plan would trigger a recession by mid-2025 and an economy that grows an average 1.3% annually during his four-year term vs. 2.1% under Biden. (The latter is in line with average growth in the decade before the pandemic.)

The Guardian: “They were billed as a ‘middle-class miracle’ but according to a new book Donald Trump’s $1.5tn tax cuts have helped billionaires pay a lower rate than the working class for the first time in history.”

Bloomberg: “Another signature Trump policy, the trade war with China, actually hurt some of the manufacturers and farmers it was supposed to help. The Tax Foundation estimates if tariffs remain, 179,800 full-time equivalent jobs could be lost.”

Donald Trump’s MAGAnomics tax scam disproportionately benefits ultra-wealthy corporations – which he has promised to double down on in a second term. 

Washington Post: “Trump and his advisers have discussed deeper cuts to both individual and corporate tax rates that would build on his controversial 2017 tax law … Further cutting corporate taxes … would primarily benefit large firms.”

Bloomberg: “[Trump] intends to center his economic plans on extending and deepening the Republican tax cuts from 2017.”

Vanity Fair: “Donald Trump Wants to Give His Favorite Corporations Another Giant Tax Cut in a Second Term: Report”

CBS News: “Two years after Trump tax cuts, middle-class Americans are falling behind”

Forbes: “Trump Tax Cuts Helped Billionaires Pay Less Taxes Than The Working Class In 2018”

Economic Policy Institute: “The TCJA overwhelmingly benefited the rich and corporations while overlooking working families”