I own and run Thyme & Honey Bakery, a small business in Biddeford. As a small-business owner, you might think that I would be glad that my senator, Susan Collins, cast a crucial vote for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Ignoring tax experts and her own constituents, she insisted that trillions of dollars of tax cuts would help small businesses like mine. However, nearly two years after her vote, we can definitively say that nothing could be further from the truth.

That is because instead of helping real small-business owners, the cuts were focused on the uber-wealthy and large out-of-state corporations, the kinds of people and businesses that donate to Susan Collins’ campaigns. Instead of investing in our local communities, they are padding the pockets of their CEOs and wealthy shareholders. That is why 2018, the year after Sen. Collins’ vote, American corporations announced $1.1 trillion of stock buybacks, an all-time record. This is while it adds $1.9 trillion to our national deficit, forcing massive cuts to our education and infrastructure, the kinds of investments that support small businesses like mine and our communities.

It also threatened our health care, eliminating the crucial individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act, the part of the bill that kept costs down. She also opened up the entire ACA to a legal challenge that could eliminate it entirely. That would be devastating for small businesses like mine where neither owners nor workers can afford good health care plans, whose costs are only increasing thanks to her vote.

Mary Bailey

Biddeford

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