ICYMI: Washington State Small Business Owner Warns Against Republican Tariff and Tax Policies In House Committee Hearing

Washington, D.C. — Today, the Republican-led House Committee on Small Business held a hearing entitled, “Hope on the Horizon: Prioritizing Small Business Growth in the 119th Congress,” featuring four small business owners. This hearing comes mere days after President Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico, which are set to go into effect in early March, and 10 percent tariffs on Chinese imports, which went into effect Monday. These tariffs, along with the country’s patchwork care economy, represent a foundational threat to America’s small business ecosystem that would further squeeze small businesses financially and continue to raise prices for working families nationwide. 

President Trump and Congressional Republicans’ embrace of cost-raising tariffs, illegal federal funding cuts, and outrageously expensive tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires is a blatant attack on the working class and small business owners. This hearing is just another hamfisted attempt to deny that reality. At today’s hearing, one of the small business owners who testified gave House Republicans a much-needed dose of reality and shined a light on the real-world impact of Republican tariff and pro-billionaire tax policies. 

“The title of this hearing, ‘Hope on the Horizon,’ is at odds with the reality that the President’s current and proposed actions would gut the engine of the American economy – Main Street Businesses,” said Washington state small business owner Molly Moon Neitzel who runs Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream and testified during the hearing. 

“Additionally, every small business owner in America is incredibly concerned about a global trade war and the general chaos-creation policies we’ve seen in the federal government in the last few weeks. Any tariffs, and even the threats of them, will increase costs, raising prices even higher for families and could raise inflation again. As just one example, a quarter of all the produce consumed in the U.S. is grown in Mexico, and any ice cream shop, restaurant, or grocery store will be devastated by a 25% tariff on those fruit and vegetable costs. Extrapolate that one example across all small businesses, most of whom operate in the global economy for ingredients, parts, or their whole product, and we’re driving toward recession.

“We don’t need a global trade war to destabilize our economy – or more tax cuts for the biggest corporations. We need to fix the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and ensure the giant companies and the wealthy people who run them pay their fair share. That way, we can invest in a national child care system, paid family and medical leave, and affordable health care so that Main Street and small businesses can thrive.” 

You can view Molly’s full testimony HERE.

To learn more about the campaign, visit UnrigOurEconomy.com or contact [email protected]

###