It’s long been the narrative that Republicans are good for business. But most politicians will position themselves on Main Street USA for a walk and talk about how they will help small businesses because small businesses are the businesses of the People. Rarely do they actually do anything to help those businesses.
That has changed under the Biden-Harris administration, which prides itself on building an economy from the middle out and the bottom up in a direct contrast to “trickle down.” In other words, they are focused on helping actual small businesses.
To that end, President Biden will be in Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Friday to visit with several small businesses, both to hear from them directly about their business creation and the things that are working for them, according to Senior Administration Officials during a press call in which PoliticusUSA took part.
“The President is traveling to the Allentown area in Pennsylvania, to meet with small business owners and community leaders and highlight how communities that for too long had been left behind by the failed trickle-down economic policies of the past are now making an economic comeback,” Michael Negron, Special Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, said. “During the pandemic, unemployment in Allentown reached 16% and many businesses closed their doors. But today with the support of this administration’s policies, Allentown is amongst the many communities across our country, making a comeback since the President took office.”
Biden’s visit is intended to highlight how Bidenomics has helped communities across the country by ushering in a small business boom, along with good-paying jobs.
In the Allentown area alone, the White House shared the following:
Allentown improvements from White House fact sheet
These improvements help the community, they help the individual, and they will, if not interfered with, build on themselves. They aren’t perfect, and they won’t fix everything overnight. But it’s important to note that they are successful policies that strengthen the country overall while improving the lives of its people.
It seems strange now, but investing in America used to be a given. President Biden has brought that ethos back in a big way, that is severely underappreciated by the political press and therefore perhaps not even known by most voters.
Allentown is a microcosm of what’s happening around the country.
The Biden administration noted recently released Census Bureau data showing that the first few years of the Biden-Harris administration are the strongest years on record for new business applications. In fact, a record has been set for new small business applications, with nearly 16 million applications filed during the first three years of the administration, which is an estimated 85% increase per month relative to the period between 2004 and January 2021.
Table from Brookings research:
Small business applications chart showing substantial growth
If you’re wondering if those are rebound applications from the pandemic, that’s a great question and it was asked by a reporter on the call. It turns out, the rates for new businesses “have really exceeded what we’ve seen in previous recoveries, the death rates have been on par or lower than and previous downturns and recoveries. And so what we’re seeing is something truly unique,” a Senior Administration Official said, pointing to a new analysis by the U.S. Council of Economic Advisers.
This level of growth will lead to the highest job growth in the last quarter century, according to their report.
There’s also been a boom for Black and Hispanic-owned businesses.
It’s fair to ask if this growth can be attributed to Biden-Harris policies. “Evidence suggests that support from the Biden-Harris Administration helped shape the landscape for this small business boom. In addition, Black business ownership has grown at its fastest rate in over 30 years, and Hispanic business ownership is up nearly 40% compared to 2019,” the White House noted, citing the above report.
While during the first few years of a presidency, it can be tricky to attribute events in the economy as being related to administration policy, we are three years into the Biden presidency, and he has exerted a substantial, truly historic effort toward rebuilding the American economy with a strong base and working and middle class.
Joe Biden has truly been good for business, but you might not know about it because he’s specifically been good for small businesses. After decades of policy enabling the takeover of the landscape by big business, opportunity for all is a welcome, albeit imperfect in execution, ideal.
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