Job Creators Network president talks taxes ahead of midterm elections

WASHINGTON (SBG) – A road trip across America — but it’s not to see the sights, sounds and tourist attractions.

The Job Creators Network, a small business advocacy group, is on a mission. It’s promoting the impacts of the recent GOP tax plan — a bill the group says has reduced the tax burden on America’s small businesses.

President and CEO Alfredo Ortiz says the bill has created a big boost for small business owners: “They’re reinvesting back in the business either by driving wages up, providing more benefits, or reinvesting back in the business through more capital.”

A new poll from Wells Fargo and Gallup shows small business optimism is at an all-time high, with 78 percent of owners saying their financial situation today is better than it was before. This comes as the economy grew 4.1 percent in the second quarter of 2018.

Democrats in Congress paint a different picture — and have been since the plan passed.

Back in December 2017, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the bill was only beneficial to big businesses.

“The suspicions of the American people,” Schumer said in a press conference, “that the Republican Party is helping the wealthy and powerful corporations and not the middle class, has been confirmed in this bill.”

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the bill was “nothing” and “is like giving you a bowl of doggy doo. Put a cherry on top and call it a chocolate sundae.”

For Ortiz, he’s worried this message from Democrats sticks and all the momentum from the tax plan could be lost.

“This is one of the things that we’re concerned about — that this potential of repealing the tax cuts that have been a big boom for the economy could potentially go away,” Ortiz said. “This November, really what’s on the table is pretty significant. It’s not just a midterm election. It’s the economic prosperity we believe we’re seeing because of the tax cuts.”