ad look at the economy now.

Look at the economy under Clinton (including a slightly higher top marginal rate) and look at the economy in the Bush era.

Which one grows middle class jobs and incomes?

It seems kind of funny to hear it put as an optometric practice.

Sole Proprietorship? How are you set up?

Are you operating on loans or on cash?

Obviously - not involved in production/manufacturing though . . . my husband's main small business now employs 23 - he owns an iron work/metal art shop. He's provided full health benes since 2006 and has grown employment/headcount by 12 since June 2009. He runs without debt - i.e. fully funded his own business. As well, he has a global reach as he is a certified UNESCO restoration specialist (also is a juried artist) who was trained in his home country of Italy.

He would say - if you can punch a larger corporation in the nose financially - look at the agend of the Chamber of Commerce to make your OWN decision.

He would also say - Obamacare rewards him for doing the right thing all of these years - and it's part of the basis for his pointed growth. I.E. - that 50% credit he stands to earn beginning in 2014 so he can afford to provide more employees health care benes.

He is also not reliant on a line of credit at banks. He does probably have insurance costs as high as yours (thinking you carry malpractice insurance???) - think about it . . . he may have an employee hanging from the cathedral of a Medieval Era church in Western Europe restoring the iron work around stained glass. Dangerous work on a few levels. However, he would like to see greater protection around working class/blue collar employee rights.

Now where is he from? Italy. When did he come here? A few days before 9/11. Why did he come here? He had a niche business. What has been his business' boom these past few years? Hedge fund brokers buying $50 thousand dollar custom made railings for their summer 'cottages'. What does he want to do? Reach the mass consumer? How does he get there? He needs the middle class to make more money so they can buy his goods and services.

What middle class employees need to be put back to work? The men and women that 'swing hammers'. How do we do that? Infrastructure.

Who will give him that infrastructure development? Obama/Biden.

It's kind of disjointed - but I can only give you his random train of thought on these issues.

He simply doesn't trust a man who has only (his words) - Moved numbers around a spreadsheet all of his life and hasn't put in a truly hard days work building a business.

We setup as an S Corporation, with my wife being the president and optometrist of the company. We have humongous loans from two different banks to cover for the build-out as well as to buy optometry equipment. Instead of leasing, we refinanced our personal home and use the equity to put a down payment on the business building. We bought a foreclosure building! Currently, business is kind of slow, but at least I'm feeling pretty good that my wife has a business place to call her own. She does not have to drive to many other places to work like before!

Again, thank you for your answer.

Truthfully - I think you have a better shot under Obama. As well - I think you will more likely have tax credit protection as a small business under Obama. He will do everything in his power and has done as much as he could to protect TRUE job creators.

There are things Obama has already done in the stimulus for small businesses under $250,000. I also recall that in Affordable Care (Obamacare) there is help for small businesses that would like to give their employees healthcare insurance (to help retain your employees).

here's the link to SBA: http://www.sba.gov/category/navigation-structure/starting-managing-business

from BigTree Oops! Romney Ditches 'Six Studies' -- His NEW Study Repeals Almost ALL Middle Class Tax Breaks!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021581146

An excerpt from the article link in that post:

Thank you for all of the info. And thank you for the Welcome to DU! I've been a DU reader since 2004 but never posted before. In spirit, I guess, I felt the pain with others here on DU when Kerry lost back in 2004 and the wonderful feelings when Obama won in 2008!

In terms of voting, I definitely will vote for my very own Chicagoan and the POTUS Barack Obama! One day, my daughters and I will drive to visit his neighborhood in hope to see him and his family. I doubt it I will to see them though!

If Mitt Romney wins, he will get rid of the tax on capital gains, as he said at the last debate. This will mean that either the deficit will go up, or he will have to make severe cuts in spending, which, given the fragile state of the economy, will likely lead to a new great depression. Do you really think your business can survive a great depression?

The only people who will benefit from Mitt Romney are people who get a significant portion of their income from their investments -- in other words, mega-wealthy people. In the short term, their taxes will go down. In the long term, however, they will also suffer, since no society can tolerate such levels of economic inequality without destroying itself.

Take a look at this recent, very disturbing, article (emphases mine):

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/14/opinion/sunday/the-self-destruction-of-the-1-percent.html?pagewanted=all

The story of Venice’s rise and fall is told by the scholars Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, in their book “Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty,” as an illustration of their thesis that what separates successful states from failed ones is whether their governing institutions are inclusive or extractive. Extractive states are controlled by ruling elites whose objective is to extract as much wealth as they can from the rest of society. Inclusive states give everyone access to economic opportunity; often, greater inclusiveness creates more prosperity, which creates an incentive for ever greater inclusiveness.

The history of the United States can be read as one such virtuous circle. But as the story of Venice shows, virtuous circles can be broken. Elites that have prospered from inclusive systems can be tempted to pull up the ladder they climbed to the top. Eventually, their societies become extractive and their economies languish.

That was the future predicted by Karl Marx, who wrote that capitalism contained the seeds of its own destruction. And it is the danger America faces today, as the 1 percent pulls away from everyone else and pursues an economic, political and social agenda that will increase that gap even further — ultimately destroying the open system that made America rich and allowed its 1 percent to thrive in the first place.

If Romney wins, he gets rid of the ACA, fewer people have insurance, you have fewer customers. If President Obama wins, the ACA stands (and maybe gets made better, if we take back enough of Congress). More people have health insurance, more people can afford health care, you have more customers.

I've always voted for Democrats! I'm just curious about the concrete affects that my business will experience under Obama or Romney so that I can clearly state the facts to my Republican friends.

...anyone had mentioned it yet. Sorry for the confusion.