Over the weekend, Barack Obama tried to push the point that his healthcare plan would help small businesses. Obama bases this assumption on the fact that businesses will be able to buy into healthcare plans that are cheaper (and run by the government). Meanwhile, what he fails to tell you is that his healthcare plan is going to increase taxes on the very same small business owners that he claims to be helping. Not only that, but in the long run, the bill would eventually eliminate the ability of small businesses to buy into private healthcare plans, therefore stifling competition. And what happens when you lack competition? Prices increase.

There is no way that Democrats could be ignorant enough not to understand that their proposed tax increases are going to hit businesses. Last week, the House Ways and Means Committee approved a 5.4% surtax on income over $1 million along with other smaller surtaxes on the evil, filthy, disgusting rich people earning more than $250,000.

The Tax Foundation has done an excellent job of figuring out exactly how this is going to affect the achievers - the business owners who write paychecks and provide a source of income for millions of Americans. The charts are worth a peak, but here are some of their findings ....

- 70.1% of returns facing a tax increase have some form of business income.

- 26.0% of all income earned by those returns facing a tax increase is business income.

- The total tax increase on business income would be $51.3 billion, a 24.5% increase, assuming business income is the last dollar of income earned.

- 36.7% of the total tax increase is attributable to tax increases on business income, assuming business income is the last dollar of income earned.

- The average return with business income would face a total tax increase of $3,246.

- The average return facing a tax increase would face a total tax increase of $54,716.

- The average return with business income that is facing a tax increase would pay an extra $66,979.

There's a lot more .. and it will be easier to understand if you read the chart.

And speaking of businesses .. the House Democrat plan also plans to impose a penalty of 8% of payroll if employers do not offer health insurance. This will be the case for all but the smallest of businesses. According to this editorial in the Miami Herald, a survey by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) found that 20 percent of its respondents would simply shut down if they were faced with this choice. They couldn't afford it. One out of four said they would replace full-time workers with part-time workers in order to avoid having to pay anything.

Now this is change you can believe in! Remember, folks. Elections have consequences.

This is how the Democrats in Congress are trying to argue in favor of Obama's tax increases on small business owners. Senator Kent Conrad, a Democrat from North Dakota, took the floor of the Senate and made the following presentation to counter the Republican argument that Obama's tax increases are going to hurt small business owners.

From the New York Times:

To prove the Democrats' point - that only minute portion of actual small business owners would face a tax increase under the budget plan - Mr. Conrad displayed a poster on the Senate floor featuring a large photograph of former Vice President Dick Cheney. Mr. Cheney, who has been vocally critical of the Obama administration, would qualify as a small business owner under the Republicans' definition, Mr. Conrad said, even though only about $180,000 of Mr. Cheney's more than $3 million in income in 2007 came from small business interests.

Then, Mr. Conrad let loose a final dagger. "I would say, that's a tortured definition," he said of the Republicans' qualifications for small business owners, a naked reference to the Bush administration's interrogation policies for terrorism suspects.

Wonderful. You see what Kent Conrad did here, don't you? He presented to the American people the idea that Dick Cheney is representative of America's small businesses and is thus unworthy of consideration when it comes to worrying about tax increases.

The looters are in control ... and you job isn't safe. Unless, that is, you work for government.

Today Barack Obama's administration is going to announce plans to aid small business owners. Great. I think we all can agree that small business owners are the driving force in this economy, considering the fact that there are 27 million small businesses in the U.S. that employ more than 40 million workers.

From Barack Obama's $787 billion stimulus package, $730 million will go towards reducing small business lending fees and increasing government guarantees on some Small Business Administration loans to 90%. Along with this, $10 billion will go toward unfreezing the secondary credit market.

First of all, just like the rest of the $787 billion in this stimulus package .. the money has to come from somewhere. And that "somewhere" would be you, the taxpayers. There's a better way to stimulate small businesses by allowing them to keep more of the money they would otherwise pay in taxes .... But we know that the FairTax isn't on Obama's radar. It would allow the people too much power, and strip the power from the imperial federal government. If the politicians don't make you more dependent on them, then they are out of a job.

Moving right along ... while Barack Obama introduces this package to aid small business owners, hasn't he already promised to raise taxes on these very people by 2011? Obama plans to raise income taxes on people earning over $250,000 a year, the very small business owners who claim their income on their personal tax returns. In fact, half of the people earning over $250,000 a year are small business owners. So, while aiding them up front, those gains will be slashed once the government demands more of their earnings in just a few years time. We'll be right back to square one.

OK, sure ...sometimes I might go a bit far on the air just to elicit a response. This wasn't one of those times. I'm talking about yesterday, when I was discussing the ramifications of Obama's extremely popular tax increases on the evil, disgusting rich. Sixty-four percent of the businesses, companies, corporations, partnerships ... call them what you will ... that actually hire people in this country are categorized as small businesses. These are businesses that report their incomes on personal tax returns. Personal returns ... not corporate returns. Are you following the numbers here? Sixty-four percent of job providers are small businesses and they employ well over 70% of all people with jobs. What's more these small businesses are creating 80% of all of our economy's new jobs. Now .. the kicker ... hopefully you already know this. These small business owners are the very targets of Obama's tax increases.

Now I've been a small business owner, and I've represented many more as an attorney. I'm telling you that when these business owners experience a reduction in their income as a result of these tax increases they are going to look for a way to cut their expenses. One of the ways many businesses will cut expenses is to cut jobs. They will fire people.

Who to fire? Longevity counts, so does job performance. You'll want to take this opportunity to send smokers to the unemployment lines ... and you might want to look at employees with tattoos. Lord knows nobody else wants to. But let's say it comes down to tiebreaker time. All elements are equal - but someone has to go. Now is the time to teach your employees that actions have consequences. If one of your employees on the bubble voted for Obama, that should make your decision for you. Tell him or her that they made a choice to vote for someone who made it clear that your taxes were going to go up. You're not going to take the hit. It was their decision, not yours, and they take the hit. Here's a box, put your stuff in it and get out. Maybe you can go get a worthy, honorable poor person to hire you.

Again ... actions have consequences. This isn't a liberal position. It isn't a conservative position. It's reality.

Have you visited your local strip mall shopping lately? It is starting to get depressing (no pun intended). It seems that in some local malls there are more empty storefronts with signs advertising their availability than there are occupied spaces open for business. Almost every empty storefront represents a small business that has failed and closed.

These small businesses are the backbone of American commerce and employment. Not only is every empty storefront a lost dream for a business owner, it represents lost jobs for employees. Small businesses employ about 70% of the American workforce and account for 80% of a new jobs in our economy.

Is there anything we can do while our esteemed Congress sets about the task of stroking larger businesses and campaign contributors? Yes. We can go out of our way to become small business customers. I now do everything I can to buy whatever it is I need from a small business. I'll try to stay away from the big box scores as much as practicable. Groceries, socks, hardware, restaurants ... whatever ... I'll look for the small independent businesses. If more people would do the same we might be able to help some of these small businesses stay alive until this economic crisis has passed. Certainly worth a try.