Joan just posted a diary called Republicans can't produce a small business person who's hurt by millionaire's surtax which pretty much proves that the GOP's claims are bullshit.
I posted a comment in response that I felt worthy of its' own diary; feel free to use this (or a modified version of it) to shoot down the "Job Creator" bullshit talking points that your Teabagger Uncle (or whomever) is bound to start ranting about over the holidays:
Let's say I have a small business that grosses $10 million/year, and I have 50 employees earning, say, $40K/year each (for simplicity's sake, all of them earn the same salary).
I'm generous with benefits, so add another $20K/year per employee for health insurance, blah blah blah. That's $3 million/year for employee costs.
Let's further assume another $5 million in other overhead & expenses--rent, utilities, equipment, business insurance, travel, advertising, whatever, bringing my pre-tax profit to $2 million in taxable business income.
Now, let's assume that I'm an honest sort, and I pay the full 35% business tax, or $700,000, leaving me with $1.3 million to spare.
The GOP claims that if they cut my taxes from 35% to 25%, saving me $200,000/year, that I'm going to use this to hire another 3-4 people.
The problem is...I don't NEED another 3-4 people to do the work necessary to run my business, so why the fuck would I hire them?
The only reason I might hire more people is if the demand for my products/services increases to the point that I need more employees to deal with the extra workload.
However, demand for my products/services is low right now, because not enough consumers have the money to buy them.
So, instead, I'm gonna just pocket the extra $200K. Result? No new jobs, the budget deficit grows larger, the Government has less money to spend on unemployment/food stamps/WIC/whatever, and the nations roads/bridges continue to crumble because the Gov't doesn't have the money to rebuild them.
(I realize this is an oversimplification, but the points remains true)