Template:NFIB In the News

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"Past tax records reveal most of the NFIB’s funding comes from Freedom Partners, whose nine-member board includes eight current or former key figures at Koch Industries and other Koch entities. More than 95% of the candidates it backs are Republican.
While its representatives are often quoted in the media as proponents of small businesses, the group refuses to release its donor list and tends to lobby for policies that benefit billionaires and corporate interests.
Under the Austin plan, employers would be able to ask for verification when sick leave extends beyond three days of work, are not required to pay out sick time when a worker quits, and can cap the number of sick days at eight per year."
"If you ask most Americans about the NRA, they will think of the National Rifle Association. But another powerful industry trade group bearing those initials, the National Restaurant Association, conducts its own campaign of duplicitous lobbying and outright deception at the expense of the public interest.
Restaurants employ more than 13 million workers, so it is no surprise that industry lobbyists are paid a lot of money to ensure this workforce remains disempowered.
The NRA, which has a staff of 750 people, spent more than $4 million in 2012 alone currying favor in Washington, D.C. But with recent fast-food strikes and restaurant workers increasingly speaking out against low wages and other forms of labor exploitation, the mask of the other NRA is slowly peeling away."
"NFIB and its affiliated groups received $2.5 million from Freedom Partners Chamber of Commerce, a conservative advocacy group with deep ties to the Koch empire. Of the five men that sit on the group's board, four are current or former employees of Koch companies and one is a friend of Charles Koch's.
Freedom Partners gave the NFIB $1.5 million last year, the biggest single contribution the federation received, according to tax records. The Koch-backed group gave three other NFIB-affiliated group another $1 million, making Freedom Partners among the top two biggest contributors to those groups, records show.
The big-money donations are raising questions about whose agenda NFIB is serving, that of mom-and-pop businesses or the captains of big industry."
"The National Federation of Independent Business received a $500,000 contribution from a group funded by the daisy chain of conservative nonprofits linked to the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers. Since Barack Obama became president, the NFIB has been the lead plaintiff against Obamacare in the Supreme Court case, advocated for the extension of tax cuts for upper-income Americans, launched a campaign to block regulations including new emissions rules for power plants, and spent millions through its affiliate organizations to support Republican candidates for the House and Senate."
"In recent months, more and more cities and states are requiring that employers give paid sick leave to their workers. It’s a broadly popular policy, and a necessary one—one in three American workers has no guarantee of being paid during an illness, including only 25 percent of part-time workers. Aside from creating even more economic vulnerability for workers, this can greatly increase the spread of seasonal flus, which costs businesses $10.4 billion every year, according to the CDC."
"For years, groups like the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) succeeded in portraying the consensus position of the “small business community” as staunchly favoring lower tax rates on top income earners and corporations. The tax debate surrounding the so-called “fiscal cliff” has exposed the myth that these groups actually represent small businesses and shows that many of these large national groups have very different interests at stake."
"Both the chamber and NFIB have been strong supporters of Republicans in congressional races, so their support for Plan B could sway some conservatives to support the bill despite their misgivings about voting for any tax increase."
"In a June 6, 2012 conference call posted on the anti-union National Federation of Independent Business’s website, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney instructed employers to tell their employees how to vote in the upcoming election."
Records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show that NFIB's "The Voice of Free Enterprise" group disclosed $10,453 in outside spending in the Missouri Senate race between Claire McCaskill and Todd Akin. The spending, disclosed on October 8, was for mailings opposing McCaskill. Read more here.
Contributions compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics show that in 2010 the NFIB Small Business Legal Center (SBLC) received $1.15 million from Donors Trust, a major supporter of the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Read more here.

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