Elder: Obama plan will grow economy by keeping taxes low

Staunton City Councilman and Downtown Staunton business owner Bruce Elder raised issue on Monday with Mitt Romney’s fuzzy tax math.

Elder, the owner of Bruce A. Elder Antique and Classic Automobiles, cited a report that the presumptive Republican Party presidential nominee’s tax plan would have to raise taxes on millions of Virginians to pay for $5 trillion in tax breaks for the wealthy.

“My small business doesn’t depend on the country’s wealthiest. It depends on middle class Americans having money in their pockets,” said Elder.

A press release from the Barack Obama re-election campaign noted that the president has signed 18 tax cuts for small businesses and expanded lending to small businesses.

In 2011 alone, according to the release, the Small Business Administration extended a record $30.5 billion in loans to more than 60,000 small businesses, including 16,000 startups.

“President Obama has a plan to grow the economy by keeping middle class taxes low, reducing the deficit, and asking the wealthiest to pay a little more. Our country needs a president who looks out for middle class Americans and small business owners, not millionaires and billionaires,” Elder said.