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Special Projects
FAMILY
AND MEDICAL LEAVE ACT AMENDMENT
USB opposes all efforts to increase FMLA mandates,
as well as opposing all efforts to enlarge the
coverage to include employers with less than 50
employees. We believe that the FMLA already mandates
significant and costly benefits, including intermittent
leave (a much-abused provision which often makes
attendance control programs futile). We continue
to maintain that there should not be paid leave.
We are already in a precarious position in California
on this issue, where a 12-week paid leave period
is being sought with a limit of $728/week or $8,736.
This piece of legislation has already passed the
Senate, with no limits on the number of employees
a firm must have.
TAX RELIEF FOR SMALL
BUSINESS OWNERS
USB favors tax relief for small businesses, partnerships
and S corporations. We support lowering the tax
rate on reinvested and retained earnings for all
flow-through entities. This reduction wil allow
small businesses to grow faster, thereby expanding
the economy as a whole. We believe that the current
tax structure reduces significantly the amount
of funds available for small businesses to reinvest
in capital assets and employees.
TAX LIMITATION AMENDMENT
USB strongly supports the tax limitation amendment.
This amendment would restore fiscal discipline
in Congress by requiring a super majority vote
in both the House and the Senate to raise taxes.
The amendment would force the government to evaluate
its commitments and prioritize its expenditures,
just as the business community must do.
BALANCED BUDGET
AMENDMENT
The fiscal discipline of this amendment to the
Constitution is vital to break the federal government's
voracious borrowing habit. As of now, lawmakers
are able to push paying for current programs into
the indefinite future, thus delaying the fiscal
impact of their spending decisions. This cycle
leads to more spending of the taxpayers money
than the taxpayers want to spend.. The Balanced
Budget Amendment would lead to lower interest
rates, increase productivity, generate stronger
private investment and ultimately, we believe,
lead to a higher standard of living.
OSHA
Business must cut through the immobilizing web
of state and local regulations by aggressively
attacking OSHA burdens, eliminating them where
possible and reducing them where necessary. As
part of our assistance to our members, USB makes
available to our members the OSHA-mandated posters
and Illness and Injury Prevention Program at a
discounted rate.
WORKERS COMPENSATION
REFORM
USB is vitally concerned about ever-increasing
premiums, and their affect upon our small businesses.
While small business is eager to protect employee
benefits, it is important that the original reform
guidelines be maintained. Excessive workers compensation
rates are a two-fold threat--they drive small
business from the state and/or they cause these
same businesses to fail where they would otherwise
succeed.
MANDATED HEALTHCARE
While opposing government-mandated healthcare
initiatives, USB supports plans designed to make
affordable healthcare available to smaller business
employers. We advocate pools for small groups,
individual plans tailored to meet small business
needs and small business representation in healthcare
administration.
TORT (LAWSUIT ABUSE) REFORM
Lawsuit abuse and a legal system that encourages
plaintiffs to pursue monetary damages regardless
of fault is a nightmare for small business. Small
business is paying exorbitant insurance rates
to support a bloated legal community. USB strongly
supports the exemption of small business from
deep pockets liability.
LIVING WAGE
Many cities around the country are instituting
a local minimum wage that the business community
is then forced to pay employees. Known as a "living
wage," this wage is higher than the federal
minimum wage much of the time. USB supports legislation
that allows the federal minimum wage to be the
minimum wage that employers must pay their employees.
United Small
Business
Proclaming Liberty to America's Small Business
P O Box 3132 St. Charles, IL 60174 - USB1@sbcglobal.net
Phone - 877/ 535-4 USB Fax - 877/ 722-4USB
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