Guess which presidential candidate, while campaigning in New Hampshire last week, said this?
"I want to be the small business president...They represent American ingenuity and hard work. But we're slipping. A recent global study showed that where we used to be one or two in the world in creating small businesses, we're now 46. It should not take longer to start a business in the United States than it takes to start one inFrance!"
The candidate continued, "I want to do everything I can to help make it easier for people to start businesses, cut that red tape....and really take a hard look at licensing requirements from state to state. There ought to be a sensible way to harmonize those, so that it's not so difficult in some states to start a businesses and much easier in the state next door to start the very same business."
After calling for less regulation of business formation and licensing, this presidential candidate went on to call for tax simplification. "You know, the businesses with one to five employees spend an average of 150 hours and $1100 per employee to do their federal taxes. There's got to be a way to simplify all of that," this presidential candidate said.
For the answer, please check out my column at the New York Sun (here), Reason (here), and Newsmax (here).
