Sen. Rand Paul Blames Biden, Democrats as Inflation Hammers Small Businesses

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., says he is furious with the Biden administration and congressional Democrats for crippling and killing small businesses. 

“Small businesses are struggling. And right now, the Biden administration and the Democrats in Congress want to add a special tax onto corporations,” Paul said in an interview with The Daily Signal. “Two-thirds of the businesses in D.C. will have a huge tax increase.” 

Paul made his way back to The Big Board, a pub in Washington, to patronize a local business near Capitol Hill and speak with reporters Tuesday.  

The Big Board gained attention during the pandemic when the city government briefly shut down the small, veteran-owned business for refusing to enforce Mayor Muriel Bowser’s vaccine and mask mandates.  

Paul visited the burger joint multiple times during its fight against the city government. 

“We came here to support them because they said at the time they didn’t want to be the vaccine police,” Paul said of The Big Board. “They didn’t want to force people to show their papers at the door. They said, ‘We’re not East Germany. We’re America, and we’re not going to do that.’” 

Unfortunately, Big Board owner Eric Flannery is confronting a new threat after being allowed to reopen his doors: inflation. 

“The economic landscape feels like it is declining,” Flannery said in an interview with The Daily Signal. “Do I see a rocky path ahead of us? I do. And I hope that some things will smooth out, but I don’t know if I have all the answers for them.” 

Research by The Daily Signal’s parent organization, The Heritage Foundation, indicates the economy likely is headed into a recession.  

E.J. Antoni, a research fellow for regional economics at Heritage, writes: 

The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, which maintains a model forecasting economic growth, is predicting that the economy contracted again during the second quarter of 2022, the three-month period from April through June. This follows the contraction of 1.6% in the first quarter, from January through March. 

Flannery’s business has been affected by the nation’s high inflation, but D.C. government policies also continue to make life difficult for him. 

“I think there’s a wide-ranging economic effect throughout the country right now,” Flannery said, adding: “The cost of doing business has gone up in D.C. So there’s more than one factor.” 

And Flannery isn’t alone. As inflation surges toward 10%, many small business owners are feeling the squeeze. 

A recent survey released by the Job Creators Network Foundation revealed that a vast majority of small businesses feel negatively about the economy. Worse, nearly 75% say they’ll have to raise prices for consumers to offset ballooning inflation. 

That same poll showed that just 12% of business owners feel President Joe Biden is doing enough to deal with inflation. 

“It’s all [the Biden administration’s] fault,” Paul said. “And frankly, there’s a big difference between the parties. The Republican Party, frankly, believes in the freedom to be left alone. … We don’t believe that we should tax and burden people.” 

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