Small business owners on Bernie's potential impact in their community
Joseph Armano, Noah Berman, and Maureen Stockton agree Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' Democratic socialist ideology will harm their American small businesses.
According to American small business owners, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' platform of democratic socialism is a "de-motivator" for innovation which will ultimately fail.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends" with host Brian Kilmeade, Armano Real Estate's Joseph Armano, co-founder of Higher Mind Noah Berman, and Forme Shoe Shapers' Maureen Stockton agreed that Sanders' policies would hurt their businesses.
Armano said that he believes Sanders' economy would "kill" his business.
"Since when [have] billionaires and millionaires been such a bad word?" he asked. "My parents came here [for] a better life. They are immigrants from Italy, and they lived for the American dream -- to provide a better life for their family and for their children.
"When you look at Sanders' tax rate -- his 7.5 percent employee tax rate for payroll -- it's going to kill me," he added. "When you look at corporate tax rate going from 21 to 35 percent, how do I invest in my business? How do I hire employees?
"You know, socialism's failed. It's just a de-motivator," he said. "It'll fail here."
Berman said he would encourage voters to examine how socialism would affect start-ups and how "even if you're just beginning in start-ups and making a base wage if you are vesting equity, you still have to pay taxes whether or not you choose to take equity" when departing the company.
"I didn't benefit from the tax cut," Stockton added. "So, my business relies on the middle class. The middle class needs more money to buy products: consumer products, vitamins, real estate. And, if we are taxed, then there's not the money to spend on our products and then I have to lay off employees and I don't want to do that.
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"I have no better feeling than hiring people, growing a business together, and hiring more people," she said.
"So, it comes down to none of this is free," Armano explained. "It's higher taxes."
"It's going to harm me as a business owner looking to grow, looking to hire," he told Kilmeade. "We are the engine of growth. You're harming people and their ability to provide for their family. None of it is free."
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