Business owners warn against a fiscal cliff deal that sacrifices entitlements to save tax cuts

[Bill USA]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/on-small-business/business-owners-warn-against-a-fiscal-cliff-deal-that-sacrifices-entitlements-to-save-tax-cuts/2012/11/30/f28c91ea-3b12-11e2-a263-f0ebffed2f15_story.html
(emphases my own)
[div class="excerpt" style="border: solid 2px red"]

...with the precipice less than a month away, some small employers say those tax discussions are overshadowing an even greater threat to their businesses – cuts to entitlement programs.

“If I could talk to Congress, I would tell them to stay away from entitlements,” Mary Black, owner of a UPS franchise in Baton Rouge, La., said in an interview. “I’m willing to pay more taxes if that’s what’s needed to pull up the country, and my business would be okay. But cutting Medicare and Medicaid could have some really bad consequences for small businesses.”

[font size="+1"]Without government-backed insurance, Black would no longer be in business. During the summer of 2010, her 71-year-old husband fell ill with pneumonia and was hospitalized for more than four weeks, much of it in an intensive care unit. He recovered, but not before the medical bills soared to more than $130,000.

“Had it not been for Medicare, my business would have gone under,” Black said, noting that her business would have likely been the first thing sold to cover the expenses. “No question, I would have had to close the doors.”[/font]
(more)


... if the Corporate Lobbyists insist on 'playing this to win', in their usual fashion, they are going to make themselves even more irrelevant ... to ever more people.