In an attempt to distance herself from the economic ruin she had a hand in creating, Vice President Kamala Harris is positioning herself as the small business candidate. That’s a good strategy, given that there are more than 33 million small businesses in the United States, and tens of millions more if you include entrepreneurial gig workers.
But one cannot just wave a magic wand and become something. Between the Biden-Harris policies over the last three and three-quarters years, as well as her campaign proposals, it is clear that Harris is, in actuality, the anti-small business candidate.
While it is always challenging to be an entrepreneur, small business owners have had a particularly rough go over the last five years. They bore the brunt of the COVID-19 shutdown mandates, while they saw big businesses get more support and thrive.
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Coming out of COVID, the Biden-Harris policies helped to stoke historic inflation, which created an immense set of challenges for small business owners (as well as Main Street Americans).
It is estimated that the Biden-Harris administration increased the regulatory burden on small businesses to the tune of $1.7 trillion, costing small businesses more than 300 million hours of compliance time.
This may be why the NFIB (National Federation of Independent Business), which puts out a monthly small business optimism survey, has seen that index stay below its 50-year historic average for 33 consecutive months.
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Another small business blow comes from Harris’s stance on independent work. In 2021, the Biden-Harris administration overturned a Trump-era independent contractor rule, and in 2024, the Biden-Harris Department of Labor put in place alternate, restrictive standards for contractor work. This matters to not only those entrepreneurs who want to work flexibly, but also to small businesses that rely on contractors.
Harris has also been clear that she is a supporter of the PRO Act, which includes much of the anti- independent contractor language from California’s AB 5 rule, which aims to take away work flexibility on the national level.
Harris’s flagship proposal purportedly demonstrating her support of small business rests on increasing a startup expense credit. Not only is this proposal opaque, but it is also focused solely on new business entities, and completely ignores America’s more than 33 million existing small businesses.
Her other proposals are directly damaging to small business owners. She has communicated that she will let the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act expire, which gave many small businesses a tax break and included a qualified business income deduction for certain small businesses that will also expire. She has also said she plans to raise income tax and capital gains taxes, among other proposals, that will see existing small businesses paying more of their hard-earned money to the government.
In terms of legislation like the Corporate Transparency Act Beneficial Ownership Information (CTA BOI) rule that targets small businesses as financial criminals, Harris has shown no solidarity with small business owners. There is a CTA BOI delay bill stuck in the Senate, as well as another delay and two repeal bills proposed in Congress, and she could lend a pro-small business voice to these efforts if that were actually her priority.
Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, and they deserve to be treated with respect, not used as a political pawn. Kamala Harris’s actions are very clear, no matter what she says, she is no friend to small business.
