House Republicans Love Startups
"Startup" was the word of the day on Capitol Hill, as the House of Representatives passed the JOBS Act with practically no resistance. The 390-23 vote went off without a hitch thanks, in part, to Obama's endorsement of the bill on Wednesday. On the surface the bill does look pretty appealing to both startup founders and investors, mainly the bit that raises the amount of equity (in dollars) that companies can offer to investors from $5 to $50 million. In effect, this gives small businesses (read: startups) access to more capital that they can spend in order to grow. House majority leader Eric Cantor, a Virginia Republican, told reporters after the vote, "We need to be a start-up country again. We are the envy of the world when it comes to our capital markets and the opportunity that we provide to the people of this country."
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Not everybody on the right likes this jobs-through-startups approach. "Dear Washington: Speaking as a new #startup owner, I don't want a JOBS Act," tweeted conservative blogger Michelle Malkin. "I want you to LEAVE ME ALONE." But with only ten staffers listed on her startup's staff, Malkin's new company Twitchy isn't exactly solving the unemployment crisis on its own. Now as the bill heads to the Senate, where it's also expected to pass, we can look forward to learning which of the handful of JOBS act detractors will soon be making money off the bill.
