Tax Reform | Immigration Reform | Healthcare Reform | Campaign Finance Reform
Welcome to the Encumbered
“We work hard to succeed. We have families. We have jobs and responsibilities and we don’t have the extra time or resource required to be an effective watchdog of today’s politics.
Politicians do not reach out to us. We are not demanding. We are not accessible. We are not available because we work. We do not earn enough to fund advocates to represent us; therefore we are overlooked. We are off the grid.”
This site is dedicated to empowering small businesses owners, their employees, their beneficiaries by making the public aware of the enormous burden small businesses work under, and the incredible contributions they make to the national economy and the local community.
Why the title “encumbered?”
By definition, encumbered means: to impede, to hinder, to hamper; to fill or block up with superfluous or obstructive things; to weigh down or burden; to burden with obligations.
This describes the small business owner – as well as many private individuals.
Who makes up TheEncumbered.com?
Perhaps we represent you. We are an advocate for small business because we are small business owners ourselves and work hard to succeed. And we have families. But, we realized that because of our obligations to family, our clients and employees, we do not have the time or resources to be effective watchdogs of today’s politics. Especially those politics that affect small businesses.
Over the past 25 years, Politicians and Special Interest Groups have realized that we can be easily exploited. As small business owners, we vote for the politician who has “voiced his promise” to prepare bills that work for us, but Special Interest Groups actually oversee what goes into the bills that are passed into law – which tend to favor the largest of corporations. Consequently, “a government for the people and by the people” has been undermined, and the taxpayer is left with the financial burden; that means you and small businesses.
Are you Republican or Democrat based?
We are neither. We do not sponsor candidates nor are we partisan. But here is what we know.
The Republican Party claims that they are the party of small business. However, it is the large corporations (those with advocacy groups) that receive their attention, their favor, and the legislation that helps their tax burden. This is only a problem because there are 150 small businesses for every large corporation in America – so why the disproportionate attention given to only large businesses?
The Democratic party claims that they are the party of the average American worker. Yet, as already stated by the OMB Office, 27,600,000 taxpayers are saddled with actually paying almost one and half trillion in taxes. And those 27 million who pay the most in taxes include anyone who earns more than $59,000 a year. That means a lot of average Americans are paying a lot more than “their fair share,”.
To be fair, neither party has a consistent record of helping small businesses overcome the mountain of regulations government required to even be in business. And yet, sometimes the cost of meeting the criteria of legislated business regulations bankrupts employers – which results in fewer and fewer employers willing to take on the risk.
To small employers, most every insurance program that we have which is designed to assist Americans has or is failing! Programs such as: Workers Compensation Insurance, Unemployment Compensation Insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, Food Stamps (and the list goes on). Healthcare is just one of many failed insurance programs.
Yet, no-one wants to say out loud that “Health care has failed, Workman’s Compensation (for the trades) has failed and Unemployment Compensation has failed”!
What do you call it when our current healthcare is so expensive that half of our country remains uninsured, or when the cost of employer sponsored insurance programs is so costly (such as Worker Compensation) that the entire residential services industry is paid off the books, or when our manufacturing jobs have been out sourced to countries where the cost of labor excludes the cost of insurances. These programs have failed!
Not a single state has addressed any of these concerns. The states, like federal government, focus on big business with the special interest advocates, not small business.
Insurances, which were originally designed to protect the individual from financial devastation, have transformed into a tool of daily conveniences. Insurance is no longer a tool to redistribute severe risk, but is now a money management tool to redistribute financial responsibility for common events.
So in many ways the issue is not heath care, but the exploitation and transformation of all insurance programs.
It’s safe to say, “If you are a taxpayer, then you are encumbered!”
Therefore, this site is for you. If you share our concerns, then please read the various options on our site, and then join us. There is no financial obligation but there is the possibility of making a difference… a difference that is good for all of us.
(You can read more about Republican and Democrat Division in our Concerns in Our Politics Section)
Tax Reform | Immigration Reform | Healthcare Reform | Campaign Finance Reform