DNC Hispanic Media Director Marco Frieri released the following statement: 

“Today, Vice President Harris put forward her proposal to support small businesses and invest in entrepreneurship. This is the latest of her plans to create an Opportunity Economy, which will ensure everyone has a chance to compete and succeed. Under President Biden and Vice President Harris leadership, the U.S. economy is growing at record rates, and Latino-owned small businesses are at the forefront – with Hispanic business ownership up 40 percent. Latino entrepreneurs are filing business applications at record rates, and the Biden-Harris administration is supporting this unprecedented wave of entrepreneurship with historic investments in small businesses and communities across the country. In stark contrast, the Trump-Vance administration would bring back the MAGAnomics agenda using his Project 2025 blueprint to continue hurting working families while bolstering big corporations.”

Today, Vice President Harris announced a plan to help small businesses start, grow, and create jobs that will directly benefit Latino-owned small businesses.

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.

“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.

“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.”

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.”

The Harris plan will continue the advancements made by the Biden-Harris administration, which brought about a record high 19 million new business applications filed as of June 2024.

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.”

U.S. Department of Treasury: “Average monthly business applications were 50% higher in 2021-2023 than in 2018-2019, and nearly 25% of all new entrepreneurs in 2021 were Latino. There is evidence that the rise in business applications has resulted in a greater percentage of Latino and Black business owners, given that areas with a higher proportion of Latino and Black residents saw relatively larger increases in application rates in 2020.”

Axios: “The big picture: Despite disproportionate impact from the pandemic, Latino-owned businesses are among the fastest-growing in numbers and revenue, according to several studies and reports.”

Wall Street Journal: “One reason Latin American immigrants have maintained their entrepreneurial momentum is that many of the businesses they started are in services, food, and delivery, sectors that have experienced increased demand since the onset of the pandemic.”

The Biden-Harris Administration is overseeing the fastest creation rate of Hispanic-owned businesses in more than a decade, over 40% faster than pre-pandemic levels. And the share of families that owned a business increased by 9 percent between 2019 and 2022, with Black and Hispanic families seeing particularly large increases in business ownership.

White House Small Business Boom Report: “The share of Black households owning a business has doubled and the share of Hispanic individuals has increased by over 40% since before the pandemic, according to the Federal Reserve. This is the fastest pace of growth in business equity ownership for these groups over the past three decades.” 

Small Business Administration: “Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the United States has experienced a historic small business boom being led by women and people of color, with 13.6 million new business applications filed since President Biden took office — a rate 65% faster than the pre-pandemic average. This small business boom has seen the fastest creation rate of Hispanic-owned businesses in more than a decade — over 20% faster than pre-pandemic levels.”

Statement from President Biden: “Since the pandemic, Black business ownership has more than doubled, Hispanic business ownership is up 40 percent, and women own a record share of businesses.”

White House Fact Sheet: “Entrepreneurs of color are particularly benefiting from the Biden-Harris Administration’s increased lending and investments in small businesses. Data from the Federal Reserve’s Survey of Consumer Finances shows that between 2019 and 2022, the share of families owning a business increased by 9%, with particularly large increases among Black and Hispanic households. The percent of Black households owning a business during this same period more than doubled — after falling between 2007 and 2019. These increases support wealth building in Black and Hispanic communities, as business owners report more wealth as compared to non-business owners in this survey. And under President Biden, we’ve achieved the fastest growth in Black business ownership in over 30 years.”

The Biden-Harris administration boosted lending to Latino small businesses. 

Axios: “The number of federally-backed loans to Latino-owned small businesses has nearly doubled in two years, hitting a record $3 billion, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration.”

“Latino-owned firms are among the nation’s fastest-growing small businesses, but a lack of access to capital, credit, and loans has prevented some of these businesses from scaling and growing.”

White House Fact Sheet: “The American Rescue Plan also includes a Small Business Opportunity Fund to provide growth capital to main street small businesses in economically disadvantaged areas, including minority-owned businesses”

U.S. Department of Treasury: “Through the Emergency Capital Investment Program (ECIP), the Treasury Department has invested $1.6 billion in Latino-designated minority depository institutions. In total, ECIP participant institutions received more than $8.5 billion in Treasury ECIP investments that may enable them to collectively increase lending in Latino communities by over $50 billion over the next decade.” 

CNBC: “The Department of the Treasury estimates that Biden’s investments in community lenders will lead to a $50 billion increase in lending to Latino communities and a $80 billion rise for Black communities. A White House official noted before Wednesday’s event that Black small business ownership is growing faster than it has in 30 years and the creation rate of Latino small businesses is at a decade high.”

The Biden-Harris administration directed the Small Business Administration to help increase loans to Latino-owned small businesses through the Paycheck Protection Program, while Trump left business owners of color behind.

Small Business Administration: “Early indications show program reforms and efforts to engage with communities authentically are working in meaningful ways. As of March 7, a comparison of the daily average rate of loans made during the exclusivity period and daily average rate ten days before the exclusivity period show loans to:

• Minority-owned businesses up by 20%, or an additional 1,000 businesses accessing relief each day 
• Women-owned businesses up by 14%, or an additional 600 businesses accessing relief each day
• Small businesses in rural areas up by 12%, an additional 1,000 businesses accessing relief each day”

Associated Press: “By changing the PPP program’s guidelines, the Biden administration was trying to prevent the pandemic from further widening the country’s racial wealth gap.

“Black Americans make up about 12% of the U.S. population, yet they control just 2% of the assets from private business ownership that are often key for ascending the economic ladder, according to the Federal Reserve. Just 4.3% of total U.S. household wealth belongs to Black Americans and 2.5% to Hispanic Americans, significantly below their share of the total U.S. population.”

NPR: “But a [2020] report from the Small Business Administration’s inspector general found that businesses owned by people of color may not have received loans as intended under the Paycheck Protection Program. There was no evidence, the report said, that the SBA told lenders to prioritize business owners in ‘underserved’ markets, including business owners of color — something the CARES Act had specifically instructed the SBA to do.”

Trump’s MAGAnomics tax scam overwhelmingly benefited the ultra-wealthy and big corporations while neglecting small businesses, and he wants to give yet another tax windfall to big corporations, threatening to explode the national debt by $1 trillion.

Washington Post: “Now GOP lawmakers and some of Trump’s economic advisers are considering more corporate tax breaks — which could expand the national debt by roughly $1 trillion over the next decade”

Vox: “Trump said this tax break was for small businesses. It’s giving $17 billion to millionaires this year.”

“If many average Americans aren’t noticing or loving the tax cut bill yet, it might be understandable — it benefits the wealthy by design. And a congressional report released this week shows that one specific new deduction for so-called ‘pass-through’ companies is heavily benefiting the rich. … The Republican tax bill cut the corporate tax rate to 21 percent from 35 percent and disproportionately benefits corporations and the wealthy.”

Bloomberg: “A perk pitched as a boon for mom-and-pop businesses in President Donald Trump’s tax law could shut out smaller real estate investors while benefiting the industry’s largest property developers. The Treasury Department released final rules recently detailing how owners of businesses such as limited liability companies and partnerships can claim as much as a 20 percent deduction.”

New York Times: “Republicans argue that this will benefit small businesses. In fact, a large majority of small-business owners already have personal tax rates below 25 percent. This provision would aid a small group of developers, investors and other tycoons who work in professions or industries where it is relatively easy to set up pass-through businesses. Like, yes, Mr. Trump and his family, who make their money from one such industry: real estate.”

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