Both presidential candidates have stressed the importance of supporting and encouraging small business to create jobs and move the US economy forward. Globe Sunday business editor Robert Gavin asked four small-business owners from four sectors — technology, health care, retail, and professional services — to discuss economic issues and their views of the presidential race as it enters its final days. Here is the edited conversation with Paul Bardaro, partner at Malden accounting firm Rucci, Bardaro & Barrett P.C.; Meredith Flynn-Ripley, chief executive of Media Friends Inc. of Cambridge; Gordon Thompson, chief executive of Westnet Inc. of Canton; and Alberto Calvo, chief executive of Stop and Compare Supermarkets.
Globe: The big question in the election has been, “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” What have the past four years been like for small businesses?
Comments
Bardaro: Undoubtedly, the tax code. The uncertainty, not knowing how you will be taxed Jan. 1, is huge. It's just huge.
A few questions later...
Bardaro: I'm not suggesting that Obama's done a terrible job, but I do know what's going to happen with the tax code with Obama. I have to change my vote to Romney as a result of the certainty [of] what I’m going to get with Obama.
If the uncertainty a huge problem, then why is he voting for it?
The figures accompanying this article seem to me to be misleading in comparing 2008 average unemployment to 2012 average unemployment, given that the financial meltdown didn't start until about September 2008 AND Obama didn't take office until January 2009. How about comparing how we're doing since things hit bottom?