At an event celebrating the start of National Small Business Week, President Joe Biden spoke of the importance of small businesses to the U.S. economy while warning of the economic devastation on the horizon if the country defaults on its debt as Republicans and Democrats remain at an impasse over the debt ceiling.
“The most immediate thing we can do is ensure the continued reliance of our economy and the financial system. The most important thing we have to do in that regard is to make sure the threat by the Speaker of the House to default on the national debt is off the table,” Biden said at the Rose Garden event on Monday. “America is not a deadbeat nation.”
He used the opportunity to sharply criticize House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s debt bill, which would raise the debt ceiling to allow the country to continue to pay its bills in exchange for spending cuts. Biden and Democrats want a “clean” debt ceiling increase, meaning a bill without any add-ons so the U.S. can continue taking on debt while the parties negotiate over the federal budget.
McCarthy’s bill, passed last week by a two-vote margin and along party lines, “would claw back billions of dollars meant for small businesses,” Biden said. According to Moody’s Analytics, one of the world’s largest credit rating agencies, the Republican debt plan would cost the United States approximately 780,000 jobs across all industries by the end of 2024.
Biden argued his economic plan to raise taxes on major corporations and billionaires to a 15% clip would reduce the nation’s debt without risking middle class jobs.
“We’re gonna bring it down hundreds of billions more in the decades ahead by making the super wealthy, the big corporations begin to pay their fair share. Just their fair share,” He said. “By the way, you know, we have about 1,000 billionaires. You know what their average tax rate is? Eight percent. E-I-G-H-T percent.”
“Eight percent. It’s such a burden. Such a burden,” the president quipped.
President Joe Biden speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington, Monday, May 1, 2023, about National Small Business Week, as Vice President Kamala Harris looks on. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The event was held to honor the 2023 Small Business Persons of the Year, selected by the Small Business Administration from each of the 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.
“You’re models of grit, heart drive and determination. All the virtues, it’s not hyperbole, that literally built America,” Biden said. “Small businesses are the engine of our economy. The glue, they really are, the glue, the heart and soul of the community.”
The president noted that small businesses account for 40% of the United States’ gross domestic product and touted his administration’s efforts to keep small businesses afloat during the economic turmoil of the last few years.
According to a report card released by the SBA on Monday, the Biden administration has poured billions into small businesses, streamlined the federal loan, grant and tax credit processes, and boosted equity efforts to reach marginalized groups who have historically faced barriers to receiving support for their small businesses.
“I came from a working-class family and not a whole lot trickled down. A trickle down economy, not a whole lot dropped on my dad’s kitchen table,” Biden said. “When I took office, our economy was reeling. Small businesses were getting crushed.”
“Many of you remember that fear of not only losing your livelihood, losing your dream, your life savings, your hope of leaving something behind for your kids,” the president continued.
Hundreds of thousands of small businesses permanently closed during the pandemic, including 200,000 in the first year alone, according to economists at the Federal Reserve. To stop the bleeding, Congress passed the American Rescue Plan, which Biden signed, giving $450 billion in relief to six million small businesses, including 100,000 restaurants and 220,000 childcare centers, according to the SBA.
In all, small businesses created 3.1 million jobs since Biden took office, his administration said. Earlier this year, the White House celebrated a milestone of more than 10 million small business applications in the first two years of the Biden administration.
The administration is also working with the private sector, Vice President Kamala Harris said, to secure billions of dollars in investment for small businesses across the country
