Washington has spent decades treating the Hispanic community as a monolithic voting bloc rather than recognizing the economic dynamism of Hispanic-owned businesses and working families.
But as we saw firsthand during a Working Families Tax Cuts roundtable at Sergio’s restaurant in South Florida, Hispanic entrepreneurs are not asking for political slogans. They are focused on growing their businesses, hiring workers, and creating opportunity in their communities.
This is playing out in many family restaurants, contracting firms, nail salons, and neighborhood shops where families are building their futures from the ground up.
One of us comes from the world of small business and understands what it means to make payroll when employees and families are counting on you. I still remember the day we finally had a surplus on our balance sheet — we celebrated it like the Super Bowl. For owners of small businesses, success is not just financial. Employees become extended family, and businesses become economic engines for the community.
Small businesses create opportunity, but they also create community. You watch employees build careers, raise families, send their kids to college, and sometimes see the next generation come back to work alongside you. That kind of investment cannot be measured only on a balance sheet.
Hispanic-owned businesses are one of the fastest-growing forces in the American economy. Census data shows Hispanic-owned employer firms account for nearly 496,000 businesses and $730 billion in receipts. Nearly all of them are small businesses built through long hours, risk-taking, and strong ties to their communities.
Too often, Washington treats Hispanic Americans as a political constituency first and an economic force second. But Hispanic entrepreneurs are looking for something more concrete: the freedom and certainty to grow their businesses, hire workers, and invest in their communities.
Despite unanimous Democratic opposition, Republicans made the 20 percent small business tax deduction permanent, protecting millions of job creators from tax increases and giving growing businesses greater certainty to invest and expand.
Without action, many growing small businesses would have faced a significant tax increase as key provisions expired. Instead, the Working Families Tax Cuts preserved the certainty small-business owners need to plan, hire and grow.
Republicans acted to protect small businesses from a major tax increase and strengthen policies that help workers and entrepreneurs keep more of what they earn. At Sergio’s, we saw what these policies mean in practice. Small-business owners want the freedom to grow, invest in their communities, and build something they can pass on to the next generation.
Washington should stop lecturing Hispanic Main Street and start respecting it.
Lisa McClain is the chair of the House Republican Conference and represents Michigan’s 10th District. Sandra Benitez is the executive director of The LIBRE Initiative, the country’s largest center-right Latino group in the country.
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