For months, Americans have watched President Donald Trump deliver on the promises that helped fuel his return to the White House. The border is more secure. Tax relief is moving forward. No taxes on tips became reality. Republicans have shown that when they are united, they can govern with speed and purpose.
The chance to shape history is rare. Right now, Congress has that chance — and the clock is ticking.
But one major promise remains unfinished: making America the crypto capital of the world.
The good news is that Congress can finish the job — and deliver the perfect birthday gift to America in the process.
When the Senate Banking Committee <a href="https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/majority/chairman-scott-senate-banking-committee-advance-clarity-act-in-historic-bipartisan-vote">advanced</a> the Clarity Act with bipartisan support, it sent a clear signal that lawmakers understand what is at stake. Even more encouraging, Senator Cynthia Lummis recently <a href="https://www.binance.com/en-TR/square/post/06-04-2026-senator-lummis-expects-clarity-act-passage-by-august-recess-330303642523329">suggested</a> the legislation could reach President Trump&#8217;s desk by July 4. The opportunity is real. The momentum is real. But momentum means nothing if Congress allows delay to become defeat.
The forces opposing this legislation understand they are losing the argument. That&#8217;s why they aren&#8217;t trying to defeat it outright. They&#8217;re trying to delay it.
Slow it down. Demand more studies. Hold more hearings. Push it past July 4. Kick it into election season.
Washington calls it &#8220;process.&#8221; The American people call it failure.
The digital asset revolution isn&#8217;t coming — it&#8217;s already here. The only question is whether America leads it or watches from the sidelines while competitors race ahead.
President Trump has made his position clear: America should be the crypto capital of the world.
He&#8217;s right.
The nations that lead digital assets, blockchain technology, and next-generation finance will enjoy a significant economic advantage for decades to come. America can either write the rules or live under someone else’s.
There is no third option.
China understands what&#8217;s at stake. Beijing is investing aggressively in the technologies that will define the next century because it wants to dominate the infrastructure of tomorrow&#8217;s global economy.
Congress should not hand China that opportunity.
For more than two centuries, America has led the world in the most important innovations—from the Industrial Revolution to the Internet Revolution. There&#8217;s no reason to surrender leadership now.
The stakes extend far beyond cryptocurrency. This is about whether the next generation of financial innovation is built in America or overseas, whether American workers benefit from that growth, and whether consumers gain access to faster, cheaper, and more efficient financial tools.
The current system rewards gatekeepers and middlemen. The American people deserve better.
Trump voters support it. Independent voters support it. Young voters support it. Entrepreneurs support it. Small-business owners support it.
Lawmakers should also recognize that not every bill moving through Washington has a clear path forward. The ROAD to Housing Act passed the House with several toxic Maxine Waters amendments that complicate its prospects for timely advancement in the Senate. Housing affordability remains an important priority, but with the housing package facing a rocky road and the Clarity Act gaining momentum by the day, the choice should be obvious for legislators looking for their next major bipartisan win.
The legislative calendar is shrinking. Campaign season is approaching. Every day without Congressional action makes success more difficult.
America&#8217;s 250th birthday should be more than a celebration of our past — it should be a declaration about our future.
Passing the Clarity Act before July 4 would do more than fulfill a campaign promise. It would demonstrate that America still has the courage to lead. Congress has a chance to send a message heard around the world: the United States is not retreating from innovation, surrendering to bureaucracy, or allowing Beijing to dictate the future.
America intends to win the race, lead the future, and remain the world&#8217;s economic powerhouse for generations to come.
With bipartisan support growing and momentum building, Congress has a rare opportunity to deliver a victory that is both symbolic and substantive.
The question is whether lawmakers will seize it — or let it slip away.
***
Ben Ferguson is a nationally syndicated talk radio host and author. He is the host of &#8220;The Ben Ferguson Podcast&#8221; and the co-host of &#8220;Verdict with Ted Cruz,&#8221; one of the top-ranked political podcasts in the country.

New virtual money concept, Gold Bitcoins ( btc ) is Digital crypto-currency use blockchain Technology

America’s Crypto Moment Is Here. Will Washington Blow It?

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Small Businesses

Trump Administration

Small business owners are overwhelmingly satisfied with the Trump administration’s economic policies, with one exception: tariffs. 
A new survey the Daily Wire obtained exclusively from Echelon Insights for Advancing American Freedom found that 88% of small business owners say conditions are going “very well” or “somewhat well,” and many expect that stability to continue. Another 45% said they expect conditions to improve over the next 12 months. 
Respondents credited the permanent extension of the 2017 Trump tax cuts as a key driver of their success under Trump&#8217;s second term. The poll found that 60% of small business owners said maintaining those tax cuts would help their business &#8220;a lot&#8221; or &#8220;some,&#8221; including 17% who said &#8220;a lot.&#8221; By contrast, 58% said allowing the tax cuts to expire and raising taxes would have negatively impacted their operations.
Tax relief ranked as the top policy priority, with 28% of respondents naming it as the single most helpful action Washington could take.
Tariffs, however, emerged as a major concern. According to the survey, 42% of small business owners said tariffs have increased the cost of supplies, 36% reported raising prices for customers as a result, and 26% said they had to change suppliers. When asked to name the most helpful policy change, 19% specifically called for reducing or eliminating tariffs.
Democrats have repeatedly attacked President Donald Trump’s trade policies, arguing that tariffs function as a tax on American businesses and consumers. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said, “His tariff chaos is eating away at retailers, restaurants, small businesses, and it is still estimated that these tariffs will cost thousands of dollars for each family each year.” 
Trump has acknowledged his tariffs could bring “a little pain,” a sentiment reiterated by members of his administration. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the tariff implementation a &#8220;detox period.” 
Vice President JD Vance framed the issue in broader economic terms.
“Incurring a huge amount of debt to buy things that other countries make for us … is not a recipe for economic prosperity, it’s not a recipe for low prices, and it’s not a recipe for good jobs for the United States of America,” Vance said. “We cannot keep going down the globalist Joe Biden pathway where we have $2 trillion of peacetime debt and deficits.”
The Trump administration says tariffs are intended to incentivize companies to bring manufacturing back to the United States, where goods would no longer be subject to import duties. But small business owners say that transition is neither simple nor immediate. 
“We can’t just move factories overnight,” <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/91337470/americas-manufacturing-revival-requires-a-marshall-plan-for-small-business-marshall-plan-small-business?utm_source=chatgpt.com">said</a> Daniel Rogge, CEO of Tormach, an industrial manufacturing equipment company. 
Others cited uncertainty as a primary obstacle. “The uncertainty is the most significant effect … People don’t want to make decisions with uncertainty,” <a href="https://www.dallasfed.org/cd/communities/2026/2602?utm_source=chatgpt.com">said</a> one wholesale trade business owner.

President Trump Holds “Make America Wealthy Again Event” In White House Rose Garden

Small Business Owners Say Things Are Great In Trump 2.0 — But They Want One Change

Tariffs

Tax Cuts

Peeling back red tape and eliminating redundant regulations sits at the heart of the Trump administration’s economic agenda. That mission went on the road Friday as the Office of Advocacy joined the House Committee on Small Business for the first stop of a new cross-country listening tour focused on small business owners. 
The Daily Wire spoke with Joe Krenzelok, with the Office of Advocacy, who is representing the agency at the tour&#8217;s opening stop, titled The Open Road: Small Business Conversations Across Main Street America. 
Krenzelok said the agency has flagged hundreds of regulatory concerns, adding that the difference this time is that those issues are receiving serious attention, creating what he described as a rare opportunity for lasting reform.
He went on to emphasize that the administration’s posture toward small business marks a meaningful shift from past approaches.
“President Trump values the input of small businesses,&#8221; said Krenzelok. 
Krenzelok will join House Committee on Small Business Chair Roger Williams to hear business owners&#8217; concerns directly.
He noted that a significant portion of the regulatory concerns raised by businesses stem from Environmental Protection Agency rules. Trump nominated Lee Zeldin to lead the EPA, praising him as a “true fighter for America First policies” with a strong legal background. 
Two months into his new role, Zeldin announced what he described as “31 historic actions in the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history.” The move launched sweeping reviews across the energy sector, including easing restrictions on coal plants, power plants, and oil and gas operations. Among the actions was a rollback of national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants. 
Krenzelok told The Daily Wire he has already seen tangible effects in his region. 
“I met with a small trucking company that raised concerns about diesel emissions regulations,” he said. “The very next day, Administrator Zeldin came to Iowa and mentioned they would be making adjustments within that.&#8221;
“That told me that he’s very well in tune with what’s happening on the ground,” Krenzelok added. “It’s very evident to me that this administration is actively seeking input from the ground because they’re addressing issues in real time.” 
According to the Office of Advocacy’s first annual <a href="https://advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/FINAL_First-Year-Report_012026.pdf">report</a>, the agency’s efforts have saved small businesses more than $110 billion in regulatory costs. The report states that, on an annualized basis, first-year savings during Trump&#8217;s second presidential term were more than 35 times those in Biden&#8217;s first year in office.

IMG_1076

Trump Admin Hits The Road To Hear Directly From Small Business

Business

General

Editor’s note: This week, we’re reprinting some of our best stories from the past year. In this piece, originally published in June, former college president Greg Salsbury recounts the cost of California’s failed leadership.
* * *
Perhaps it is fitting that legendary Beach Boy and California native son Brian Wilson would pass away in the same year that a New York Times headline would ask, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/us/california-turmoil-resilience.html">“Is the California Dream a Mirage?”</a>
The social, environmental and economic disaster that is California has been mushrooming for decades now, with any improvements in the near term looking about as likely as a working bullet train from the north to the south in that state. The litany of negative facts emerging for the state is accompanied by descriptors such as “worst,” “first,” “record,” “ballooning,” “unsustainable,” “disaster,” and “mismanagement.” These ills are detailed in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-assemblyman-explains-how-state-has-mismanaged-fire-prevention-policies-as-wildfires-rage">myriad</a> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/bad-policy-served-as-kindling-for-californias-wildfires-forest-water-management-social-justice-c5b94a4f?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAif-IufnKaxHOP49zFGTHPZhQuqrXUEi-2TLq3CTiNpkYvlSDqNxFWNzK60iAw%3D&amp;gaa_ts=685d8562&amp;gaa_sig=3-LfR_GHU3tLPG-o-YsVjgoRNU1-opiK9zrnQzURPOZIBNcm7OIKeIV5kTdTHBKbOeKnRJ-BbcIcuJq-0ipu3Q%3D%3D">articles</a> <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/01/11/opinion/catastrophic-wildfires-left-la-in-ashes-due-to-californias-failing-liberal-leadership/">pointing</a> to California’s failed leadership.
Consider the overall economic situation. California went from a state budget surplus of <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/after-100-billion-surplus-california-now-faces-73-billion-budget-deficit">$100b to a deficit of $73b</a> in just three years. This was driven in part from its decision in February of 2020 to escalate spending significantly while it was <a href="https://www.ppic.org/publication/whats-behind-californias-recent-population-decline-and-why-it-matters/">losing jobs</a>, and for the first time since receiving statehood in 1850, population. Between 2010 and 2023, the state saw 9.3 million people leave while only 6.7 million arrived — with a disproportionate number of the “leavers” in the high-income, high-tax-paying category.
California had the distinction of being rated as the very worst state in which to do business by <a href="https://chiefexecutive.net/california-is-the-worst-state-for-business-2014/">Chief Executive</a> magazine — for ten years in a row. Others were more positive with The <a href="https://sbecouncil.org/2019/05/06/new-report-sbe-council-ranks-50-states-according-to-public-policy-and-tax-climates-for-small-business/">Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council</a> seeing them as only the second worst state, and the <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/best-worse-states-entrepreneurs">Cato Institute</a> placing them at 48th out of 50 for entrepreneurs.
<a href="https://californiapolicycenter.org/reports/worsttobest/">The California Policy Center</a> concludes:
<blockquote>“For anyone operating a business in California – small, medium or large – the experiences of the last twenty years have been challenging, and it gets worse every year. California’s regulatory environment, its high taxes and exorbitant fees, and the overall cost of doing business are the toughest in the nation. Many businesses have voted with their feet, moving their operations to more welcoming business environments.” </blockquote>
According to WalletHub.com’s report “<a href="https://wallethub.com/edu/best-places-to-retire/6165">Best &amp; Worst Places to Retire (2025)</a>,” which examined 182 cities across the U.S., four out five of the worst cities in which to retire are in California.
The story is equally daunting in a host of other arenas for the state — education, illegal immigration, water, violent crime, theft, housing, insurance, energy, environment, assorted taxes and fees, cost of living, state employee pensions, healthcare, and more. <a href="https://www.consumeraffairs.com/movers/%23editorial">ConsumerAffairs</a>, a consumer news and advocacy organization, compared all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. across five categories: affordability, economy, education and health, quality of life, and safety. California ranked as the single least desirable state to move to. Their conclusion might have been influenced by seeing that, compared to all other 49 states in the nation, California has the:
<ul>
<li>Highest <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2023/demo/p60-280.html">poverty rate</a></li>
<li>Highest top marginal <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-income-tax-rates/">state income tax rate</a></li>
<li>Highest <a href="https://www.redfin.com/blog/most-expensive-states-to-buy-a-house/">median home price</a></li>
<li>Highest <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-gas-tax-rates-2024/">gasoline tax</a></li>
<li>Highest number of federal <a href="https://www.datapandas.org/ranking/welfare-recipients-by-state">welfare recipients</a></li>
<li>Highest amount of <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dem-states-blame-most-nearly-400-million-unemployment-fraud">unemployment benefit fraud</a></li>
<li>Highest number of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/22/what-we-know-about-unauthorized-immigrants-living-in-the-us/">illegal immigrants</a></li>
<li>Highest percentage of <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/map-states-most-high-school-dropouts-1872310">high school dropouts</a></li>
<li>Highest rates of <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/human-trafficking-statistics-by-state">human trafficking</a></li>
<li>Highest <a href="https://247wallst.com/special-report/2024/02/13/this-is-the-state-with-the-most-homeless-people-every-state-ranked/">homeless population</a></li>
<li>Highest level of <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/pension/comparative_view/table/">state pension shortfall</a></li>
<li>Highest level of <a href="https://www.consumeraffairs.com/movers/states-people-are-moving-to-and-from.html">net exodus</a> from the state</li>
<li>Highest <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/630090/states-with-the-average-electricity-price-for-the-residential-sector-in-the-us/">cost for kilowatt hours</a> in the continental U.S.</li>
</ul>
While many folks have wryly referred to California as, “the most expensive weather in the world,” an increasing number of people are rethinking that cost — especially when the weather itself is now regularly accompanied by wildfires, mudslides, and earthquakes.
The <a href="https://hgbr.org/californias-economic-challenges-a-growing-exodus-and-policy-concerns/">Hampton Global Business Review</a> concludes, “The allure of California’s beaches and innovation hubs might not be enough to counteract the growing disenchantment among its residents and business leaders.”
While all of this is more than sobering, contrary to the popular narrative, the untenable situation in which the state now finds itself cannot be blamed solely or even largely on the handful of people who have occupied the top leadership roles or even the few thousand in mid-tier management/political roles for the state. To be sure, many of those people have largely been far worse than feckless; they have been actively counterproductive — perhaps even maleficent. But blaming leadership is like blaming guns for shooting homicides. They could not have performed this disservice without the active support of the California voters.
Time and time again, California voters continue to check the box for more of the same people who continue to inflict damage on them for decades now. But more importantly, they knowingly do so. No objective observer can credibly argue that Californians have been fooled or misled by their leaders or the outrageous decisions they have made, or failed to make.
The great scholar, author, and life-long California resident Dr. Victor Davis Hanson has for years <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/28121811-the-decline-and-fall-of-california">detailed</a> the disastrous results of many of these decisions — from eliminating fire-preventing forest management, to not only failing to build appropriate dams but blowing up existing dams and eliminating reservoirs, to promoting unchecked and mass illegal immigration.
There was likely no more clarifying moment of truth on this point than when Governor Gavin Newsom faced a recall. His record was damning. There was the bungled and hypocritical mismanagement of the COVID virus response — complete with vaccine shortages, maskless French Laundry dinners with friends, and arbitrary business closure guidelines, a budget deficit that was more than double his own projection, and most importantly, the ignoring or exacerbation of most of the long list of the aforementioned maladies destroying the state.
Not only did the recall effort fail miserably, with Newsom receiving a convincing approval mandate of 62% of the vote, but he was then solidly re-elected in 2022 with nearly that same margin. California voters, no doubt painfully aware of all of these issues essentially said, “Yes, yes, yes! Give us more of this!”
But suppose for just a moment that Newsom had been recalled, that perhaps he had skewered one of the sacred cows big enough to motivate his ouster. Perhaps he drove a diesel car, or contended that there is something wrong about allowing a 250lb biological male athlete to compete with women, or suggested that maybe the unpunished shoplifting limit should be reduced from $950 to say $500, or publicly stated that illegal immigrants are not entitled to the same rights as U.S. citizens. Who would voters have suggested take his place? It almost certainly would have been another entity not dissimilar to Newsom in any significant way.
All of this is exacerbated by the fact that so many logically thinking, hard-working, patriotic Americans are leaving California if they can. With each passing year, the state is left with an increasingly left-leaning voter base — and they like it that way.  Thus, it is folly to believe that California’s ills can be solved as simply as replacing a few, key incompetent leaders. California’s failed leadership is not nearly as problematic as its failed follower-ship. And that is a far harder nut to crack.
Brian Wilson made a career writing songs about the abundant fun, fun, fun available in the Golden State. Were he with us today, begrudgingly or not, he would have to admit that clearly, daddy took the T-Bird away.
* * *
Greg Salsbury, Ph.D. is former president of Western Colorado University and Board of Advisor member for <a href="https://starrs.us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">STARRS.US</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Newsom best of

Best Of 2025: California Had Fun, Fun, Fun — Until Voters Took The T-Bird Away

California

Gavin Newsom

Immigration

Jobs

Opinion

Taxes

Does more government involvement in the socioeconomic sphere make the life of an average New Yorker better? Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani thinks so, with big-government policies prioritizing economic redistribution, a fundamental aspect of socialist ideology.
Mamdani’s platform includes city-owned grocery stores, free buses, no-cost childcare, rent freezes, a $30 minimum wage, and small business reforms.
While the latter proposal is commendable and bipartisan, Mamdani’s solutions are, unfortunately, not. He has promised small businesses, which account for <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/assets/smallbizfirst/downloads/pdf/small-business-first-report.pdf">98%</a> of firms in the city and employ over half of the private sector workforce, a regulatory reform package focused on improving compliance.
Mamdani alleges to be a <a href="https://www.zohranfornyc.com/platform">champion for the little guy</a>, claiming he will “cut small business fines in half, speed up permitting and make online applications easier, and increase funding for 1:1 small business support by 500%.” While his message resonates and it correctly identifies that the city’s systems can be punishingly slow, his agenda does not target root concerns for businesses.
Rather than removing any of the <a href="https://nyc-business.nyc.gov/nycbusiness/index">6,000 regulations</a> that cost small businesses time, money, and resources, Mamdani proposes that minimally <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/mayors-office/news/2022/05/mayor-adams-reduces-burdens-nyc-small-businesses-jumpstarts-city-s-economic-recovery-by">reducing compliance expenses</a> is the best strategy for making business operations faster, easier, and cheaper.
Violations such as labor non-compliance, sanitation issues, or building code infractions can cost owners <a href="https://cei.org/blog/american-small-businesses-are-paying-through-the-roof-for-regulations/">thousands of dollars annually</a>. The right solution is deregulation — to remove needless and onerous regulations and to ensure compliance with essential safeguards.
Instead, he has proposed more government bureaucracy, namely the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wuZ-s8VnnAHqHhqtHESwgzINiN7D95vy/view">“Mom and Pop Czar” Office</a>. This entity, allegedly designed to promote small business interests, will work to halve fines and eliminate fees. Leaving thousands of bad regulations on the books and simply arbitrarily reducing fees is more likely to lead to confusion, harmful non-compliance, and situations that can be easily gamed — in short, a profit for lawyers and accountants but not for workers and customers.
This is more likely to undermine local trust in regulatory fairness. Firms that have invested in compliance in the past may feel penalized, creating an environment of social decohesion. This is a politically motivated and poor substitution for deregulation.
Speeding up permitting and making online applications easier should quicken the timeline for which small businesses can begin operations. New York City’s permitting process is complex and slow, taking several months and costing owners time, money, and resources. However, the mayor-elect’s plan lacks any detail on how to achieve a simpler <a href="https://www.permitflow.com/blog/nyc-building-permits">permitting process</a> and is more likely to be a false campaign promise than a serious effort to ease the burdens of New York City’s businesses.
Increasing funding for small businesses by 500% is intended to offer personalized support for owners in the form of grants, loans, and technical assistance. Mamdani will finance and expand the <a href="https://www.nyc.gov/site/sbs/about/pr20220907-nycbest.page">Business Express Service Teams (BEST)</a>, which offer one-to-one support and assist small businesses with bureaucratic hurdles.
Over-reliance on government assistance may harm entrepreneurial independence as it fosters governmental dependence and crowds out numerous private sector entities that provide the same kind of support to businesses. Scaling up BEST requires hiring and training more staff, risking inefficiencies and mismanagement of funds.
Instead of <a href="https://comptroller.nyc.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/RedTapeReport.pdf">eliminating useless or obsolete regulations</a>, he offers <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/14-aM9DKG337SDMilmfQtLRR-pDwyWSTc/view">crushing tax increases</a> and false promises mired in government bureaucracy. Mamdani’s policies do not address leading concerns for small businesses, those being the over 6,000 regulations that impede operations. He targets operational burdens and small fees, completely ignoring the primary costs for entrepreneurs — regulations.
Making compliance requirements less restrictive can best be achieved by eliminating the compliance requirement altogether. Removing the regulatory burdens that plague small business owners best fosters free market competition and economic growth.
Mamdani should recognize a simple truth: prudent deregulation is the only viable long-term solution, not government intervention.
* * *
Nicole Huyer is a Senior Research Associate in The Heritage Foundation’s Thomas A. Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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This piece is a part of <a href="https://www.heritage.org/wealth-and-innovation">The Heritage Foundation’s Wealth and Innovation project.</a>

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Mamdani’s ‘Mom-and-Pop’ Plan Doesn’t Cut Red Tape

Mamdani’s 'Mom-and-Pop' Plan Doesn’t Cut Red Tape

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Democrats are lashing out at the eight senators from their own party who voted to reopen the government without securing more federal subsidies for the Affordable Care Act &#8212; but a new survey of small business owners reveals that Democrats&#8217; favorite health care policy may not be playing well with the American electorate.
“The cost of health insurance has gone up every year since the ACA,” a Pennsylvania manufacturer told the National Federation of Independent Business. “No small business can keep up with the costs.&#8221;
Health insurance premiums rose <a href="https://www.cms.gov/cciio/resources/forms-reports-and-other-resources/downloads/uninsured-affordability-in-marketplace.pdf">143%</a> in the first six years after the ACA, colloquially known as Obamacare, took effect. Next year, premiums are set to rise <a href="https://www.kff.org/quick-take/aca-insurers-are-raising-premiums-by-an-estimated-26-but-most-enrollees-could-see-sharper-increases-in-what-they-pay/?utm_source=chatgpt.com">26%</a> on average. Democrats say these rising premiums justify Congress approving <a href="https://www.cbo.gov/publication/61734">$24.6 billion</a> worth of taxpayer-funded subsidies, while Republicans say the need to spend billions offsetting premium costs proves that the ACA is unaffordable and unsustainable.
&#8220;The increase will surely kill many small businesses in the next couple of years,&#8221; the Pennsylvania manufacturer said. &#8220;Soon I will no longer be able to offer health insurance to my employees. In turn, this will cost me good employees.&#8221;
He&#8217;s not the only one feeling the crunch.
&#8220;It is becoming increasingly difficult to provide medical insurance that the company and employees can afford,&#8221; a manufacturer from Ohio added.
Obamacare prices were at the heart of the longest government shutdown in American history, which the Senate voted to break Monday night after 41 days. Republicans pushed for a continuing resolution to reopen the government, while Democrats refused to agree unless the measure included a one-year extension of ACA subsidies.
From the Senate Floor, Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) argued preserving the ACA was essential.
&#8220;I must vote no [to reopen the government] because health care prices are so severe, so urgent, and so devastating for families back home,&#8221; Schumer said. &#8220;I cannot support this CR that fails to address the health care crisis.&#8221;
The National Federation of Independent Business&#8217; optimism index fell 0.6 points in October, according to the report. The sharpest contributor to October’s dip was a deterioration in earning trends, with 25% of owners reporting lower profits. NFIB’s Chief Economist Bill Dunkelberg reported the government shutdown likely played a role, as the Uncertainty Index fell 12 points to its lowest reading this year.
Despite the pullback, optimism among small businesses remains three points above the low from earlier this year and above its 52-year average of 98. Confidence hit its lowest point in April amid market volatility and tariff-related uncertainty, before rebounding midyear as conditions stabilized.
The labor market continues to frustrate small employers. Like last month, small businesses reported a tight labor market with labor quality remaining the most significant problem in October. Small businesses report struggling to compete with large corporations offering higher wages, signing bonuses, and more comprehensive benefits.
The gap is most apparent in skilled trades, where 28% of small businesses reported job openings they can’t fill. Jobs for electricians, plumbers, welders, HVAC technicians, and construction workers are among the hardest to supply. <a href="https://www.nfib.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/NFIB-SBET-Report-Oct.-2025.pdf">Nearly half (49%)</a> of small businesses in the construction industry reported not being able to find construction workers.
This trend was years in the making. Fewer young people have pursued vocational programs and many older, experienced tradespeople have retired. According to the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average age in the manufacturing industry is 44 and the <a href="https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat18b.htm">average age</a> of a construction worker is 42, signaling an aging workforce.
However, there may be reason for cautious optimism. Recent studies suggest that Gen Z is increasingly turning toward <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/mike-rowe-reacts-to-rise-in-skilled-trade-enrollment-calls-gen-z-the-next-toolbelt-generation">trade careers</a>, motivated by higher education costs and concerns that artificial intelligence could disrupt traditional white-collar jobs.
While overall small business optimism has cooled in recent months, the survey reports that business &#8220;won’t be pleasant until the shutdown is ended.” With the reopening of the government, many business owners expect the negative impacts of the shutdown to reverse.

Shutdown Risks Leaving Millions With Costlier Health Insurance

Small Business Owners Are Sick Of Rising Obamacare Costs

Economy

Government Shutdown

Health Care

Obamacare

U.S.

Perhaps it is fitting that legendary Beach Boy and California native son Brian Wilson would pass away in the same year that a New York Times headline would ask, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/11/us/california-turmoil-resilience.html">“Is the California Dream a Mirage?”</a>
The social, environmental and economic disaster that is California has been mushrooming for decades now, with any improvements in the near term looking about as likely as a working bullet train from the north to the south in that state. The litany of negative facts emerging for the state is accompanied by descriptors such as “worst,” “first,” “record,” “ballooning,” “unsustainable,” “disaster,” and “mismanagement.” These ills are detailed in the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/california-assemblyman-explains-how-state-has-mismanaged-fire-prevention-policies-as-wildfires-rage">myriad</a> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/opinion/bad-policy-served-as-kindling-for-californias-wildfires-forest-water-management-social-justice-c5b94a4f?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAif-IufnKaxHOP49zFGTHPZhQuqrXUEi-2TLq3CTiNpkYvlSDqNxFWNzK60iAw%3D&amp;gaa_ts=685d8562&amp;gaa_sig=3-LfR_GHU3tLPG-o-YsVjgoRNU1-opiK9zrnQzURPOZIBNcm7OIKeIV5kTdTHBKbOeKnRJ-BbcIcuJq-0ipu3Q%3D%3D">articles</a> <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/01/11/opinion/catastrophic-wildfires-left-la-in-ashes-due-to-californias-failing-liberal-leadership/">pointing</a> to California’s failed leadership.
Consider the overall economic situation. California went from a state budget surplus of <a href="https://www.hoover.org/research/after-100-billion-surplus-california-now-faces-73-billion-budget-deficit">$100b to a deficit of $73b</a> in just three years. This was driven in part from its decision in February of 2020 to escalate spending significantly while it was <a href="https://www.ppic.org/publication/whats-behind-californias-recent-population-decline-and-why-it-matters/">losing jobs</a>, and for the first time since receiving statehood in 1850, population. Between 2010 and 2023, the state saw 9.3 million people leave while only 6.7 million arrived — with a disproportionate number of the “leavers” in the high-income, high-tax-paying category.
California had the distinction of being rated as the very worst state in which to do business by <a href="https://chiefexecutive.net/california-is-the-worst-state-for-business-2014/">Chief Executive</a> magazine — for ten years in a row. Others were more positive with The <a href="https://sbecouncil.org/2019/05/06/new-report-sbe-council-ranks-50-states-according-to-public-policy-and-tax-climates-for-small-business/">Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council</a> seeing them as only the second worst state, and the <a href="https://www.cato.org/blog/best-worse-states-entrepreneurs">Cato Institute</a> placing them at 48th out of 50 for entrepreneurs.
<a href="https://californiapolicycenter.org/reports/worsttobest/">The California Policy Center</a> concludes: 
“For anyone operating a business in California – small, medium or large – the experiences of the last twenty years have been challenging, and it gets worse every year. California’s regulatory environment, its high taxes and exorbitant fees, and the overall cost of doing business are the toughest in the nation. Many businesses have voted with their feet, moving their operations to more welcoming business environments.” 
According to WalletHub.com’s report “<a href="https://wallethub.com/edu/best-places-to-retire/6165">Best &amp; Worst Places to Retire (2025)</a>,” which examined 182 cities across the U.S., four out five of the worst cities in which to retire are in California.
The story is equally daunting in a host of other arenas for the state — education, illegal immigration, water, violent crime, theft, housing, insurance, energy, environment, assorted taxes and fees, cost of living, state employee pensions, healthcare, and more. <a href="https://www.consumeraffairs.com/movers/%23editorial">ConsumerAffairs</a>, a consumer news and advocacy organization, compared all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. across five categories: affordability, economy, education and health, quality of life, and safety. California ranked as the single least desirable state to move to. Their conclusion might have been influenced by seeing that, compared to all other 49 states in the nation, California has the:
<ul>
<li>Highest <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2023/demo/p60-280.html">poverty rate</a></li>
<li>Highest top marginal <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-income-tax-rates/">state income tax rate</a></li>
<li>Highest <a href="https://www.redfin.com/blog/most-expensive-states-to-buy-a-house/">median home price</a></li>
<li>Highest <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/data/all/state/state-gas-tax-rates-2024/">gasoline tax</a></li>
<li>Highest number of federal <a href="https://www.datapandas.org/ranking/welfare-recipients-by-state">welfare recipients</a></li>
<li>Highest amount of <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dem-states-blame-most-nearly-400-million-unemployment-fraud">unemployment benefit fraud</a></li>
<li>Highest number of <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/07/22/what-we-know-about-unauthorized-immigrants-living-in-the-us/">illegal immigrants</a></li>
<li>Highest percentage of <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/map-states-most-high-school-dropouts-1872310">high school dropouts</a></li>
<li>Highest rates of <a href="https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/human-trafficking-statistics-by-state">human trafficking</a></li>
<li>Highest <a href="https://247wallst.com/special-report/2024/02/13/this-is-the-state-with-the-most-homeless-people-every-state-ranked/">homeless population</a></li>
<li>Highest level of <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/releases/z1/dataviz/pension/comparative_view/table/">state pension shortfall</a></li>
<li>Highest level of <a href="https://www.consumeraffairs.com/movers/states-people-are-moving-to-and-from.html">net exodus</a> from the state</li>
<li>Highest <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/630090/states-with-the-average-electricity-price-for-the-residential-sector-in-the-us/">cost for kilowatt hours</a> in the continental U.S.</li>
</ul>
While many folks have wryly referred to California as, “the most expensive weather in the world,” an increasing number of people are rethinking that cost — especially when the weather itself is now regularly accompanied by wildfires, mudslides, and earthquakes.
The <a href="https://hgbr.org/californias-economic-challenges-a-growing-exodus-and-policy-concerns/">Hampton Global Business Review</a> concludes, “The allure of California’s beaches and innovation hubs might not be enough to counteract the growing disenchantment among its residents and business leaders.”
While all of this is more than sobering, contrary to the popular narrative, the untenable situation in which the state now finds itself cannot be blamed solely or even largely on the handful of people who have occupied the top leadership roles or even the few thousand in mid-tier management/political roles for the state. To be sure, many of those people have largely been far worse than feckless; they have been actively counterproductive — perhaps even maleficent. But blaming leadership is like blaming guns for shooting homicides. They could not have performed this disservice without the active support of the California voters.
Time and time again, California voters continue to check the box for more of the same people who continue to inflict damage on them for decades now. But more importantly, they knowingly do so. No objective observer can credibly argue that Californians have been fooled or misled by their leaders or the outrageous decisions they have made, or failed to make.
The great scholar, author, and life-long California resident Dr. Victor Davis Hanson has for years <a href="https://goodreads.com/book/show/28121811-the-decline-and-fall-of-california">detailed</a> the disastrous results of many of these decisions — from eliminating fire-preventing forest management, to not only failing to build appropriate dams but blowing up existing dams and eliminating reservoirs, to promoting unchecked and mass illegal immigration.
There was likely no more clarifying moment of truth on this point than when Governor Gavin Newsom faced a recall. His record was damning. There was the bungled and hypocritical mismanagement of the COVID virus response — complete with vaccine shortages, maskless French Laundry dinners with friends, and arbitrary business closure guidelines, a budget deficit that was more than double his own projection, and most importantly, the ignoring or exacerbation of most of the long list of the aforementioned maladies destroying the state.
Not only did the recall effort fail miserably, with Newsom receiving a convincing approval mandate of 62% of the vote, but he was then solidly re-elected in 2022 with nearly that same margin. California voters, no doubt painfully aware of all of these issues essentially said, “Yes, yes, yes! Give us more of this!”
But suppose for just a moment that Newsom had been recalled, that perhaps he had skewered one of the sacred cows big enough to motivate his ouster. Perhaps he drove a diesel car, or contended that there is something wrong about allowing a 250lb biological male athlete to compete with women, or suggested that maybe the unpunished shoplifting limit should be reduced from $950 to say $500, or publicly stated that illegal immigrants are not entitled to the same rights as U.S. citizens. Who would voters have suggested take his place? It almost certainly would have been another entity not dissimilar to Newsom in any significant way.
All of this is exacerbated by the fact that so many logically thinking, hard-working, patriotic Americans are leaving California if they can. With each passing year, the state is left with an increasingly left-leaning voter base — and they like it that way.  Thus, it is folly to believe that California’s ills can be solved as simply as replacing a few, key incompetent leaders. California’s failed leadership is not nearly as problematic as its failed follower-ship. And that is a far harder nut to crack.
Brian Wilson made a career writing songs about the abundant fun, fun, fun available in the Golden State. Were he with us today, begrudgingly or not, he would have to admit that clearly, daddy took the T-Bird away.
* * *
Greg Salsbury, Ph.D. is former president of Western Colorado University and Board of Advisor member for <a href="https://starrs.us/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">STARRS.US</a>.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Vogue World: Hollywood Press Announcement

California Had Fun, Fun, Fun — Until Voters Took The T-Bird Away

Oklahoma Senator James Lankford urged his colleagues to permanently overturn an “absurd” Biden-era regulation that requires small business owners to report personal information to the federal government. 
Lankford told The Daily Wire that the Senate should <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-wont-enforce-outrageous-biden-era-small-business-reporting-rule" target="_blank" rel="noopener">follow</a> the Trump administration&#8217;s lead and prohibit enforcement of the beneficial ownership information reporting requirements for American companies. The rule, as promulgated by the Biden administration, required people who had direct or indirect control of a company to report their name, birthdate, address, and a unique identifying number to the Treasury Department.
“There is no way anyone is going to ever tell me and convince me that the Constitution allows the federal government to go to every small business and say, ‘tell me who your influences are and send me that in a form’. That is not the job of the federal government to go do that,” Lankford told The Daily Wire. 
The Trump administration announced on Sunday that it would stop enforcing the rule for domestic businesses and that it would be promulgating a new rule only applicable to foreign companies. 
Lankford said that the Biden administration had taken a statute that was “snuck” into a National Defense Authorization Act to supposedly combat money laundering and created an “over-burdensome” and “quasi-Orwellian” unconstitutional rule that did more to harm honest small business owners than illicit companies. 
He said the rule made a massive &#8220;assumption that companies that are laundering drug money will suddenly at that moment become honest and report that they are actually being controlled by a drug kingpin. The practical effect of the rule was to force small business owners to prove that they were laundering drug money,&#8221; Lankford said. 
Consequences for not complying with the form, which Lankford said many small businesses were unaware of, could include a $10,000 fine and up to two years in prison. 
“Small businesses don’t get up every day and read the federal register to be able to find out what it is the federal government is now imposing on them as a new regulation for a new piece of paper to be able to get in or face jail,” he said. “They’re getting up and turning lights on, cleaning toilets, and doing all the things they need to do to get their business going that day.”
Senate Republicans have previously introduced multiple bills to challenge the rule and Lankford said that the Senate Banking Committee is expected to hear one of the proposals in light of the decision from the Trump administration. Recently, Republicans on the committee <a href="https://www.banking.senate.gov/newsroom/majority/scott-leads-effort-to-ease-burdens-on-small-businesses" target="_blank" rel="noopener">introduced</a> a measure that would have bumped the deadline for small businesses to report the required information. 
Last month, the House of Representatives voted unanimously to extend the deadline for businesses to respond to the Treasury Department, which had previously been scheduled for March 21. 
“This is one of those things that every small business just wants this gone so that they don’t have to think about it all the time and be worried about if they are going to go to jail tomorrow because of a form not being filled out,” Lankford told The Daily Wire.

Congressional Lawmakers React To The Expiration Of The Title 42 Border Policy

Lankford Urges Senate To Permanently Overturn ‘Absurd’ Biden Small Business Reporting Rule

Biden Administration

James Lankford

Senate

Treasury Department

Kevin Hassett, a former senior adviser to former President Donald Trump and chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said this week that Vice President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/kamala-harris" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kamala Harris</a> stole another proposed economic policy from the Republican presidential nominee.
Hassett said during an interview on PBS&#8217; &#8220;Firing Line&#8221; with Margaret Hoover that Harris&#8217; proposed $50,000 small business tax credit was actually something that she was against when Trump was in office and he proposed increasing the tax credit.
&#8220;So that policy, the small business deduction, it’s $5,000 in the law now,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And in 2018, President Trump and the Republicans wanted to expand the deduction to $20,000. It actually passed the House with very little Democratic support. And so, you know, Republicans are on the record as saying that there should be a bigger deduction for the start of a small business. And so this is an example of her reaching into Donald Trump’s playbook and taking one of his policies.&#8221;
&#8220;Expanding the deduction for startup business is a good idea. And it’s something that Republicans tried to do in 2018, but the Democrats were opposed to it,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;And so, it’s something that she was opposed to before she was for it. And so you could say, well, is she really for it now? Or, you know, could she explain why she changed her mind?&#8221;
<a href="https://www.amiracist.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.amiracist.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1726313279401000&amp;usg=AOvVaw115_qPFFEePDP86-Fvo-Vd">Am I Racist? Is In Theaters NOW — Get Your Tickets Here!</a>
He added that it was not clear at all what her economic agenda was, but that a lot of what she has proposed is &#8220;very extreme.&#8221;
WATCH:
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Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Kevin Hassett Interview

Top Trump Economist: Harris Stole Yet Another Trump Economic Policy

2024 Election

Kamala Harris

A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/u-s-house-of-representatives" target="_blank" rel="noopener">House</a> panel is pressing the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/state-department" target="_blank" rel="noopener">State Department</a> to be more forthcoming in a probe into alleged government <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/censorship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">censorship</a> that is also the subject of a lawsuit brought by The Daily Wire.
GOP lawmakers, who are looking into whether the government funded private entities to discredit small businesses and their owners over their political speech and views, <a href="https://smallbusiness.house.gov/uploadedfiles/01.08.2024_-_letter_3_to_global_engagement_center_re_censorship.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sent a letter</a> on Monday to James Rubin, coordinator of the agency&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-twitter-files-twitter-and-the-fbi-belly-button">Global Engagement Center</a> (GEC), <a href="https://smallbusiness.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=405837" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contending</a> the organization&#8217;s previous delivery of information to Congress &#8220;appears to be incomplete&#8221; with dozens of awards doled out in recent years seemingly omitted from the tranche.
“The GEC award recipients revealed in its partial production have caused enough concern that the Committee is requesting more detailed information to understand the reality and scope of what these companies are using taxpayer dollars for,&#8221; wrote Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams (R-TX) and Rep. Beth Van Duyne (R-TX), chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Regulations.
&#8220;The GEC’s initial production was provided to the Committee over five months after the requested due date of June 21, 2023. The result was a five-page spreadsheet; there is no reason the GEC would need one month per page of production. The Committee needs all relevant documents to ensure all American small businesses are able to compete online without interference from the federal government,&#8221; they added.
On its website, the GEC touts how it is focused on <a href="https://www.state.gov/bureaus-offices/under-secretary-for-public-diplomacy-and-public-affairs/global-engagement-center/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;proactively&#8221; leading</a> interagency efforts to counter disinformation and propaganda from foreign adversaries. But Republicans suspect the center is surreptitiously propping up activities that suppress free speech at home, particularly on social media as has been illustrated by the &#8220;Twitter Files,&#8221; and they have talked about <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/jim-jordan-unveils-budget-wishlist-to-fight-weaponized-federal-agencies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">pulling taxpayer dollars</a> from the GEC.
A deadline of January 22 was given for the additional documents and information requested by the lawmakers.
A State Department spokesperson told The Daily Wire that the agency is &#8220;committed to being responsive to congressional oversight and continues to work with the House Small Business Committee on its requests.&#8221; The spokesperson added, &#8220;However, as a general matter, we do not comment on our communications with Congress.&#8221;
<a href="https://onelink.to/dwapp" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" aria-describedby="sk-tooltip-9096" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://onelink.to/dwapp&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1700760801843000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PQrVSrJfhxNb4LcARqniG">CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP</a>
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, <a href="https://www.texasattorneygeneral.gov/news/releases/attorney-general-ken-paxton-sues-us-state-department-conspiring-censor-american-media-companies-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">joined</a> with The Daily Wire and The Federalist last month in suing the State Department, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/daily-wire-and-the-federalist-sue-biden-state-department-over-censorship-effort" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accusing the government agency</a> of funding censorship technology designed to bankrupt domestic media outlets with disfavored political opinions. The lawsuit seeks to put a stop to the alleged effort to boost censorship organizations that regularly target conservative media outlets with the stated goal of limiting ad revenue.
The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/14/technology/state-department-disinformation-criticism.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">published a report last month</a> that said Rubin rejected claims that his organization censors Americans&#8217; comments online. “What we do not do is examine or analyze the U.S. information space,” he said.
Also noted in the article was how the Supreme Court is poised to weigh in on a broader <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-administration-scores-victory-against-order-blocking-contact-with-social-media-companies" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social media censorship case</a> brought by the GOP attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana in the spring following an appeals court panel ruling that said there was &#8220;no indication that State Department officials flagged specific content for censorship, suggested policy changes to the platforms or engaged in any similar actions that would reasonably bring their conduct within the scope of the First Amendment’s prohibitions.&#8221;

Rep. Roger Williams

House GOP Twists Screws On State Dept In Censorship Probe

Censorship

House Republicans

Ken Paxton

State Department

The Daily Wire

The Federalist

U.S. House of Representatives

As early as grade school, American children, especially from minority or disadvantaged backgrounds, are being told they should pursue social activism or even political revolution in order to make the country a better place.
But Alfredo Ortiz, CEO of Job Creators Network and the son of Mexican immigrants, argues that private enterprise would be a more effective way to achieve positive social change.
“If you want to make America a better place for everyone, especially minorities, forget social activism,” Ortiz said. “Instead, start a business.”
Ortiz notes that unlike activists and politicians, entrepreneurs create jobs and economic opportunities, not only for themselves, but for the people around them. The approximately 44 million small businesses in the United States provide roughly ⅔ of all new jobs.
Ortiz also notes that, relative to their share of the American population, “minorities start businesses more often than their white counterparts.”
According to the Kaufman Foundation, 360 out of 100,000 Americans will start a business in any given month, but among Hispanics, 540 per 100,000 will do so, and that disproportionate likelihood of starting a business has had rapid economic impacts.
“The ratio of household wealth between whites and Hispanics went from 8:1 to 5:1 between 2013 and 2019 as Hispanics became entrepreneurial,” Ortiz said. “There are 10 million minority-owned small businesses in America, generating $2 trillion of annual wealth and employing 10 million people.”
Ortiz cites the example of the Guthrie brothers, co-owners of Detroit Chassis, which assembles frames for motorhomes and trucks. The Guthries grew the company from a small workshop into a major manufacturer that brings in more than $100 million every year and employs more than 150 people, most of whom, like the Guthrie brothers, are black.
Ortiz argues that the American system is not rigged, and that people of all racial backgrounds can and will succeed if given the opportunity to do so. However, he argues that a large, redistributive state will cause the opposite of its desired effect by favoring large and well established firms over new businesses, limiting economic mobility.
“Small businesses, because they are small, are much more vulnerable to bad government policies.”
Minimum wages, inflation, rising energy costs, and many other hardships brought on by government policy disproportionately cut into the slim profit margins of small, local firms. Without profits, small businesses cannot develop new products, or hire new workers — if they start taking on losses, they may not even be able to operate.
“To lift up minorities and close the racial and ethnic wealth gap,” Ortiz says, “we should look to the millions of economic pioneers, many of them minority entrepreneurs, who are risking everything to make their lives, and our lives, better every day.”
WATCH:
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Screen Shot 2023-06-06 at 7.33.45 PM

Want A Revolution? Start A Business.

Money

PragerU

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/small-businesses" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Small businesses</a> impacted by the current <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">economic</a> tumult are filing for bankruptcy at levels last witnessed at the outset of the lockdown-induced recession, even as President <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> touts an uptick in new business ventures.
Economic phenomena such as <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/inflation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">inflationary pressures</a>, as well as the rising <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/interest-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interest rates</a> caused by monetary tightening from the Federal Reserve, had produced an increase in the number of small and medium-sized businesses filing for bankruptcy, according to a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/us-credit-crunch-bankruptcy-bank-crisis-svb-fed-inflation-markets-2023-3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">note</a> from investment bank UBS obtained by Business Insider. Fears of a credit crunch amid the failure of multiple banks worsened the rise in bankruptcies. The number of business closures surpassed the peak witnessed three years ago when governments implemented lockdown mandates.
The number of monthly bankruptcy filings reached nearly 32,000 as of February 2023, an 18% rise from the 27,000 bankruptcy filings seen in February 2022, according to <a href="https://www.abi.org/newsroom/bankruptcy-statistics" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the American Bankruptcy Institute. Chapter 11 bankruptcies, which are typically used by larger businesses because of their more complex nature, increased by 83% over the same period.
Communications from the White House have nevertheless downplayed the present economic challenges and the burdens they create for small businesses. Biden has repeatedly cited the overall higher rates of new business formation over the past three years, as noted by <a href="https://www.census.gov/econ/bfs/pdf/bfs_current.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Census Bureau, without noting the phenomena which have simultaneously weighed upon entrepreneurs.
“When I came into office, this economy was reeling. Small businesses were hurting. Literally hundreds of thousands of small businesses had closed across the country. Millions of Americans, many of whom worked in small businesses, lost their jobs through no fault of their own,” Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/03/27/remarks-by-president-biden-at-the-sba-womens-business-summit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> last week. “To jumpstart American economic recovery, we needed to help the small businesses and we needed to help them fast. So we got to work.”
The commander-in-chief claimed that the American Rescue Plan boosted the economy by delivering emergency loans to millions of businesses. Critics have asserted that the stimulus package <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/americans-continue-to-opt-out-of-the-workforce" target="_blank" rel="noopener">worsened</a> labor shortages by extending enhanced federal unemployment benefits established amid the recession, a reality which thereby increased price levels.
The budget proposal unveiled last month by the White House would increase the corporate tax to 28%, which would split the difference between the current 21% rate and the previous 35% rate that was in effect before 2017. One in four businesses registered as corporations are small businesses, according to <a href="https://www.atr.org/biden-budget-violates-his-small-business-tax-pledge/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> compiled by Americans for Tax Reform, implying that the higher taxes would negatively impact smaller employers.
Biden has likewise <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-celebrates-economic-progress-even-as-inflation-remains-four-times-higher-than-at-the-beginning-of-his-term" target="_blank" rel="noopener">contended</a> that his policies have lowered inflation in recent months while neglecting to mention that price level increases are currently four times higher than the rates observed when he assumed office two years ago. “We are making progress in the fight against inflation,” he said last week in a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/03/31/statement-from-president-joe-biden-on-february-pce-report/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>. “The fight against inflation isn’t over, and every day my administration is working to give families more breathing room.”
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Inflation has a more severe <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wharton-economist-warns-that-inflation-is-hitting-poor-americans-the-hardest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">impact</a> on low-income households, which typically allocate a greater portion of their monthly income to core living expenses relative to wealthier families. Real wages plummeted 1.9% between February 2022 and February 2023, according to <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/realer.nr0.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Inflation

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