State of the Union Highlights Importance of America's Entrepreneurial Spirit

We're glad the president highlighted the importance of entrepreneurship and innovation to a thriving private sector in his final State of the Union address tonight, and we agree that small businesses need to have their voices heard in our growing economy.

As noted in his speech, our economy is truly on a path to recovery, with more than 14 million new jobs and our unemployment rate reduced by half. We agree that creating smart policies that support working families and the middle class—small businesses' primary customer base—is the most common sense way to ensure our economy continues down this pathway to prosperity.

In order to truly ensure small businesses and our economy thrive, we need policies like those discussed tonight on closing corporate tax loopholes, expanding retirement savings, mobile benefits and paid leave programs, and supporting an innovative economy. This will bolster our nation's entrepreneurs and their middle class customer base. This includes:

• Closing corporate tax loopholes that put small businesses at a disadvantage, and cutting the top corporate tax rates.Small Business Majority's opinion polling found 75 percent of entrepreneurs believe their small business is harmed when big corporations use loopholes to avoid taxes, and 90 percent believe big corporations use loopholes to avoid taxes that small businesses have to pay.
• Supporting the growing freelance economy and identifying and fixing tax issues unique to freelancers. A healthy freelance ecosystem can provide an innovative and singular pathway for women, minorities, youth, veterans, disabled people and immigrants to enter the mainstream American economy and build income and independence.
• Providing access to affordable health insurance for small businesses by upholding and implementing the healthcare law in full. The law creates more avenues for small business owners and the self-employed to secure affordable coverage and reduce costs, which encourages entrepreneurship and small business growth.
• Moving forward with policies that help small businesses provide paid leave to their employees and raising the minimum wage. These changes can improve employee productivity, reduce turnover and increase spending at small businesses to strengthen our economy overall.
• Supporting easy-to-implement mechanisms for entrepreneurs and small business employees to access retirement benefits, such as the myRA program.
• Implementing the president's plan to make two years of community college and technical school free to responsible students, which would help address our nation's crippling youth unemployment, and small business owners' struggle to find qualified workers.

These policies can play a valuable role in promoting an environment where small business can grow, but Washington needs to act on them. It's vital that policymakers make it a priority to level the playing field for small businesses and break down barriers to innovation and entrepreneurship through smart economic policies. By taking action on these issues and more, we can help small businesses thrive and strengthen our economy.