Madison– Tomorrow, Representative Mark Pocan will be joined by 4 local small business owners, including child care providers and restauranteurs, to discuss the American Families Plan and how it will help small business, workers and folks all across Wisconsin. In the lead up to Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to Milwaukee, Rep. Pocan will hear from these business owners about the need to pass the American Families Plan.
Please join us. We will provide for a Q and A, which will include the Congressman. This will be after the speaking program which will last just over 30 minutes. If you would like to connect with any of our speakers after the program we would be happy to help facilitate that.
What: Small Business Roundtable on the American Families Plan with Rep. Pocan
Who:
- Representative Mark Pocan (WI_02)
- Shawn Phetteplace, State Manager, Main Street Alliance
- Chef Dave Heide, Liliana’s and Little John’s, Fitchburg
- Macy Buhler, Yahara River Learning Center, DeForest
- Patrick DePula, Salvatore’s Tomato Pies, Madison, Monona, Sun Prairie
- Corrine Hendrickson, Corrine’s Little Explorers, New Glarus
Where (Registration Required): https://us02web.zoom.us/
Our statement upon the release of the American Families Plan by President Biden last week:
On the release of the American Families Plan today, the second half the of Biden-Harris administration’s Build Back Better Agenda, Main Street Alliance Executive Director Stephen Michael had this to say:
“Small businesses across the nation applaud the serious investment in critical care infrastructure included in the American Families Plan.
With a bold national plan for 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave, significant new investments to make child care more affordable — including support for the Child Care for Working Families Act as well as extensions to tax credits for child care and the EITC — President Biden is acknowledging the importance of care infrastructure in keeping our economy competitive as small businesses and working families work to build back better. Encouraging passage of the Healthy Families Act, as well as continued acknowledged support for lowering health care and drug costs, get at some of the core expenses eating away at our entrepreneurial middle class, but don’t go far enough. This plan leaves out key investments needed to expand access to health care to millions through Medicaid expansion and protections to curb the power of pharmaceutical monopolies in price negotiation which could save taxpayers billions.
Small businesses are encouraged, however, by the long overdue provisions to close tax loopholes and better resource the IRS to beef up enforcement. The decades long trends of corporate consolidation, capital gains and other policies that benefit only the wealthy have contributed to our widening inequality. Instead, let’s invest in our working families, and a thriving small business economy that provides everyone the opportunity to prosper and heal.
After decades of hard work from grassroots activists across the country, including small business owners, we are finally seeing some real investments in child care, paid family and medical leave, and health care that have been needed for too long.
Small businesses look forward to coming back stronger and more resilient. This will require the critical investments outlined today, as well as the investments in our broadband, roads and bridges from the American Jobs Plan. Together, these plans will help us build back better. Both pieces are critical and address supports for our economy that have been underinvested in or simply ignored for too long.
We look forward to working with Congress to develop and pass the most comprehensive and robust complete infrastructure package that includes investments in paid family and medical leave, child care and health care, as well as broadband, public transportation, clean and safe water, and other physical infrastructure needed to ensure the full revitalization of Main Street businesses and economy.”
