I've run a small

business for more than 30 years, and the claim that more tax cuts for

the rich can generate jobs at small businesses is ridiculous. Expecting

high-end tax cuts to trickle down as job creation is about as reasonable

as pouring gasoline on your hood and expecting it to run your engine.

My company's success or failure is tied to the economic health of our 24

employees, our customers, our community, our state and our country. The

quick-buck artists who have increasingly dominated our financial system

since the 1970s don't care about the long-term growth of companies they

temporarily "invest" in or the well-being of the people who work at

them. Now they're trying to sell us more tax cuts for the rich - cloaked

in concern over small-business owners and jobs.

When tax cut lobbyists tell you that small-business owners will use the

money saved from lower tax rates to hire someone, they've got it

backward. Either they've never run a small business, or they're trying

to mislead you.

My tax rate doesn't affect hiring. If I think I can do more business, I

hire more workers. The costs of finding, hiring and paying new employees

are business expenses. They're deducted upfront from our taxable

income.

Ultimately, those new employees are going to earn my company more in

profit than it costs to find, train and pay them. That's how capitalism

works.

So if Congress wants to help my company - and other small businesses -

create jobs, it should support tax and economic policies that boost

broad-based consumer income and spending.

"Experience shows that lower tax rates for high incomes don't generate

better job creation," says a new report by Business for Shared

Prosperity. "As The Wall Street Journal reported, President Bush ‘shows

the worst track record for job creation since the government began

keeping records' in 1939. The Bush administration created just 1.1

million jobs net, while the Clinton administration created 22.7

million."

We can't afford to extend the Bush tax cuts for the 2 percent of

Americans with yearly income above $250,000 for couples or $200,000 for

individuals. And contrary to myth, the average small-business owner

makes a lot less.

Actually, fewer than 3

percent of taxpayers with any business income at all make more than

this - and many in that 3 percent are not small-business owners. They

include Wall Street investment partners, chief executive officers

getting paid to sit on the boards of other big companies and partners in

wealthy real estate or law firms.

Giving a tax cut windfall to the guys who made billions trashing our

economy and ripping off ordinary investors and pension funds by selling

worthless mortgages and derivatives is wrong. They were bailed out and

didn't even have the decency to thank us. Instead, they turned right

around and poured their profits into obscene paychecks, more speculation

and lobbying. And they're likely to do the same with their tax cut

money. Is that good for our economy?

When I look around, I don't see small-business development programs,

road and bridge repairs, public transit projects, libraries, schools,

job training, water treatment or health and safety inspections that

could be cut so wealthier people can pay less taxes. Do you?

This budget-busting tax giveaway to the rich is expected to add $700

billion to the federal budget deficit in the next decade. That's money

we need to invest in infrastructure, education, renewable energy and

economic development.

It'll put people back to work today and lay a strong foundation for Main Street businesses and middle-class jobs in the future.

Those jobs are likely to mean more people walking into my store - and

into the neighborhood restaurant, realtor, grocery, auto dealer and all

the businesses that make up our Main Street economy.

Congress and President Barack Obama should extend the middle-class tax

cuts. But additional tax cuts for high-income households would be

irresponsible.

Lew Prince is managing partner of Vintage Vinyl, an independent

music store in St. Louis. He is a member of Business for Shared

Prosperity (www.businessforsharedprosperity.org).