Corporations are People my Friend

Corporations are People my Friend


In Iowa this last week, Mitt Romney said that "corporations are people. . . ."
A statement that has the left all abuzz. The left has been engaging in a class warfare that has been too sucessful in demonizing the prosperous. They have worked dilligently to paint a picture of a large, faceless, nameless, and impersonal entity- the corporation, as the the cause of all economic ills. Greedy owners of corporations are, of course, billionaire fat cats, who look down on and despise the middle and lower class.

These fat cats fly around in corporate jets, take advantage of the poor, refuse to share their good fortune and definitely don't pay their fair share of taxes. A scourge to society indeed! The problem, however, is that faceless, monolithic corporations don't exist.

I should know. I am a corporation. I don't fly around in a private jet, in fact I fly coach. I don't have a pool boy, but I do have a pool. We blow it up for the kids every summer. I mow my own lawn, and do my own laundry. I also pay fifty, that's 5-0 percent of my income in taxes.

I am taxed not just on my income, but also on my company's income. Yup! I'm taxed on money that I never see. I have listened for the last two years as politians have raved against business owners and told us how selfish we are. I'd like to set the record straight.

When my husband, my in-laws and I started our company a few things had to happen. First the bank needed a lien against a home as collateral. We didn't have one, so my in-laws did that. They literally risked everything they had.

Second, we needed employees, and they needed to be paid well. We decided to pay our employees MORE than we paid ourselves. Pretty selfish, huh? For four extra years we lived in a cramped apartment, while our employees bought homes of their own. But we knew that things would pay off in the end. In a few years they did and we purchased a small repossessed home. Then the business loan was re-adjusted to put a lien on our home too. Fun huh?

Years went by and the business grew. Unfortunately, and employee was unhappy and set fire to our business. I'll never forget answering the phone and hearing, "I think we've lost everything." It was just before Thanksgiving. Our employees still received Christmas bonuses. We did not.
We worked hard to rebuild. Our clients were loyal to us and we started to succeed again. We were still paying employees equal to and more than we took home. We still provided health insurance and even bumped pay up so employees could more easily pay for family members. We provided their cell phones and a vehicle. We tried to make it a good place to work.

We started to make a good living. We bought a bigger home and hired some more people. And then the economy affected us too. And the healthcare law passed, and we started reading the requirements. When some employees left, we chose not to replace them. In time things started to pick up, and we were able to rehire. Then more uncertainty came from Washington.

On most evenings you will find me on my knees. I don't ask God to make us rich. I ask him to allow the company to provide enough work for our employees. I pray that we don't have to lay anyone off, because I know those employees have children and parents who depend on them.

When I hear President Obama and others in the democratic party talk about how business owners are holding onto profits and not paying their fair share I am sickened. If the President wants businesses to hire and not hold onto money, he most stop threatening to tax all profits. Right now, business owners are holding onto profits so they can pay those threatened taxes.

You may say that I'm not the type of corporation that President Obama is targeting, but you are wrong. Companies like General Electric move their money offshore and avoid paying any tax. Small corporations, like mine feel the brunt of the taxes that purport to tax only the wealthiest Americans.

A corporation is a group of people working for a common goal, much like a union. But the democratic party and unions have forgotten that people don't start companies for the purpose of hiring others. That is simply a nice consequence. People start businesses to make money. If the tax burdens become too great, it is not worth having a business. Then we all lose, employees and employers alike.

So when Mitt Romney says that corporations are people, he's right!