Wouldn't it be great if our Federal Gummit could break from the current climate of a capitalist system makeover and policy uncertainty and throw a bone to the jobs mill?
Having just endured a rapid economic contraction, fueled in part by the exorbitant fuel prices of 2008 and the resulting shortage of cash flow to buy stuff and pay bills by huge number of small businesses and American's who live and operate paycheck to paycheck, our gummit overlords have signaled to those wounded employers that not only is it a near certainty that their operating expenses will go up even farther but, their mandated operational regulations and requirements are completely up in the air and heading strait for their accounts payable department.
Is it any surprise that these struggling and surviving businesses are in a holding pattern?
Is it any surprise that some are restraining themselves from rebuild or expansion and and have instead tightened their belts and piled up some cash or assets, just in case this recession continues or worsens, combined with their preparation for whatever new mandates our gummit overlords conjure up?
Have any of you heard one word from any of these monomaniacal, narcissistic overlords of what the gummit plans to do to enable and encourage these small businesses to rebound?
A trillion bucks to banks, insurance companies and car companies hasn't convinced too many small businesses that gummit is clearing any paths for them.

Danni,
Some years ago, I was an installation sub-contractor for one of the largest residential cabinet companies in Metro Atlanta. Back in the day, there was nearly 30 installation sub-contractor companies installing millions of dollars in cabinets every month. The mother company was doing over 60 million dollars in business each year and employed nearly 100 design and administrative professionals. The owners made great money as did we, the installation companies. The only investments to my knowledge was in our 401k program. I'm fairly sure the owners invested their personal income in various stocks however, the company it's self did not, nor did we outsource any jobs overseas.
Some years after I left the Atlanta market and headed to the gulf coast, the rise in fuel costs began to take hold. It effected not only the ability of the cabinet company to perform the field operations it was responsible for and the installation companies ability to venture as far away from the warehouse to install the cabinets, it also effected the other trades involved in the construction process. It is assumed that they too did not outsource any jobs overseas nor did they dump huge amounts of unavailable cash into the stock market.
Eventually, as buyers were becoming scarce and the availability of cash to build on speculation was dwindling, each of these companies, including this once great powerhouse of a cabinet company, began to slow and contract.
Today, they are a shell of what they once were. I suspect that this story is not too uncommon throughout the U.S. It is widely accepted that most of the jobs in the U.S. are created and held by companies about this size and strength as well as the smaller companies that support them.
Given this scenario, do you believe that you plan of increased taxes would save companies like this?