If America is to preserve and create millions more meaningful jobs, let’s focus on helping the job creators, not hurting them.

And who generates most of the jobs in this country?

Small businesses – defined as entities with fewer than 500 employees – provide 70 percent of our nation’s jobs and are the heartbeat of innovation and productivity in America. They also happen to be struggling to stay afloat amidst the evaporation of consumer spending, credit and access to private capital. Unless small businesses rebound and restore their vitality, it’s almost impossible to envision our economy making a full recovery.

As Washington moves to raise taxes on small businesses, it wouldn’t be enough for conservatives and all other concerned Americans merely to oppose this course of action. Now is the time for us to come together to present ideas and solutions to make America more conducive to small-business growth.

That’s why the House GOP has made revitalizing small businesses the cornerstone of our alternative plans for economic recovery. During the stimulus debate, Republican leadership personally handed President Obama our solutions, which would have created twice the jobs at half the cost of the bill the president eventually signed. We proposed an initiative to allow small businesses to exclude 20 percent of their overall income from taxes. It was an unambiguous statement that it is only small business and private industry – motivated to grow, invest and innovate – that are positioned to create the millions of jobs our country needs.

Small businesses would also get a boost under the alternative budget House Republicans rolled out last week. Our budget responsibly winds down the deficit and offers more opportunity for job creators by laying the groundwork for entrepreneurialism, economic growth and investment. Most small businesses pay taxes on income as individuals.

Our budget would give these entities a tremendous boost by simplifying the tax code and lowering the highest marginal tax rate down to 25 percent. Meanwhile, the small businesses that pay taxes at the corporate level would benefit from our proposed cut in the corporate tax rate – now the second-highest in the developed world after Japan – down to 25 percent.

To be fair, the Obama administration deserves credit for announcing a plan last month to back $15 billion in Small Business Administration loans. But the plan is insufficient, since 90 percent of small businesses have never even applied for an SBA loan. Moreover, the benefits small businesses will reap from the initiative pale before the damage inflicted as a result of the administration’s tax policies.

The best medicine for small business is confidence. Unfortunately, those in control of the agenda prescribe anti-competitive union card-check legislation and a budget that raises taxes on the employers of 25 percent of American jobs. In fact, small businesses make up more than 50 percent of the so-called “individuals” to get hit by a $1 trillion tidal wave of tax increases over the next decade.

The consequences?

Said Oklahoma City small-business owner Terry Neese, who testified before a House GOP hearing on small business last month: “If this small-business tax becomes reality, many small-business owners tell me that they will not be able to grow their business. Not only will they not be able to hire more people, in many instances they will be forced to lay off workers. They won’t be able to buy new equipment; they won’t be able to invest in their communities.”

The GOP has the obligation to be the honest opposition. When we believe the president is correct – for example, in his handling of Iraq policy – we will stand with him. But when he and congressional Democrats put forward an agenda we fear will deal a blow to American prosperity, we will speak out and offer the country a better vision for the future.

We believe that small businesses, entrepreneurs and the self-employed are the solution to our ills, not a source of finance for a vast expansion of government programs. That’s why we propose alternatives that reward hard work and encourage investment, ingenuity and the creation of wealth rather than the redistribution of it – the small-business values that made America special.

This article appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

The thing about fear is that you can see it. For an insight as to what the left today fears most, witness its attempted political assassination of Eric Cantor.

The 45-year-old Virginia congressman came to Washington in 2001, and by last year had been unanimously elected Republican Whip, under Minority Leader John Boehner. In recent months, Mr. Cantor has helped unify the GOP against much of President Barack Obama’s agenda, in particular his blowout $787 billion stimulus, and yesterday, his blowout $3.6 trillion budget.

He’s also one of the GOP’s up-and-coming talents. Along with Wisconsin’s Paul Ryan, or California’s Kevin McCarthy, he represents a new guard, one that’s sworn off earmarks and brought the conversation back to fiscal responsibility and economic opportunity. They’ve focused on party outreach, and are popular with younger voters and independents. They are big fund-raisers, part of a drive to recruit and elect more reformers. And they are on the rise.

All of which threatens the left. Democrats know their current dominance in Washington is in no small part due to public disillusionment with the GOP. They are also aware that their current tax-and-spend governance is creating plenty of opportunities for that opposition to remake itself. Thus the furious campaign — waged by every blog, pundit, union, 527, and even the White House — to kneecap Republicans who might help lead a makeover. Mr. Cantor is the top target.

This kicked off after the GOP’s unanimous vote against the stimulus, which Democrats saw as an opening to brand Mr. Cantor as the public face of partisan opposition to the “bipartisan” president. The Virginian has in fact publicly reached out to the White House, and has been deeply involved in producing alternatives to administration policies. But never let the facts get in the way of a good smear.

Within days of the vote, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee was up with radio ads targeting 28 Republicans who’d voted no. Mr. Cantor was the only member of the House GOP leadership to get hit. The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the big union, and Americans United for Change, the pro-Obama group, launched their own ads against 18 members, again singling out Mr. Cantor. The groups also ran a national TV spot sporting a picture of the whip with text that read “just saying no” — which earned Mr. Cantor a new liberal nickname: Dr. No.

Mr. Obama joined in at his Fiscal Responsibility Summit. As the TV cameras rolled, he deliberately turned to the whip to say: “I’m going to keep on talking to Eric Cantor. Some day, sooner or later, he’s going to say ‘Boy, Obama had a good idea.’”

The Rush Limbaugh flap inspired a new AFSCME and American United for Change ad, accompanied by a statement that when Rush says jump, “Eric Cantor and other Republicans say ‘how high.’” At nearly the precise moment Obama Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel made Sunday news by claiming Mr. Limbaugh was rooting for Obama “failure,” George Stephanopoulos (who, take note, has daily calls with Mr. Emanuel) demanded on his own show that Mr. Cantor tell him if this was indeed the GOP strategy. David Plouffe, the president’s campaign wizard, followed up with an anti-Limbaugh screed for the Washington Post, zeroing in on that “new Republican quarterback Eric Cantor, who says “the GOP’s strategy will be to ‘Just Say No.’”

And then there’s the echo chamber. MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann is so obsessed with Mr. Cantor, he can barely find time to be indignant about anything else. Talking Points Memo, Huffington Post, Think Progress and other leading liberal blogs are today all-anti-Cantor-all-the-time.

But the real ugly was unleashed a few weeks ago, when the goon squad set on Mr. Cantor’s wife. An outfit called Working Families Win began running robocalls in five districts noting that Diana Cantor was a “top executive” at a bank that had received bailout funds — the clear implication being that Mr. Cantor’s vote for said bailout hinged on this fact. “In the middle of the AIG scandal, our congressman [fill in the blank] voted to make Virginia Republican, Eric Cantor, the conservative leader in Congress,” it droned (incoherently and incorrectly), before demanding voters oppose the “Cantor Family Bank bailout.”

At least when Chuck Schumer ran ads targeting Republicans for voting for a “bailout” that his own party brought to the floor — and passed — he kept his attacks on the members. And the last anyone looked, the AIG intervention was being overseen by the Obama administration, not the House minority whip. This may set a new political low, not the least because Mrs. Cantor in fact works at a subsidiary of the bank in question. Not to mention that Mr. Cantor led the initial GOP revolt against the “bailout.”

The Virginian has a new, high-profile job, and that means taking some knocks. Mr. Cantor is also where he is for a reason, and has so far weathered the onslaught. But the coordinated takedown attempt is yet more proof that the Obama-led Democrats aren’t nearly as interested in changing the “tone” as they are in holding on to power.

This article appeared in today’s National Review.

Even in these dire financial straits, we must not ignore North Korea’s missile launch.

The nation’s gaze is understandably fixed on the economy, but it would be unwise to overlook emerging threats to national security. That is what appears to be happening right now. Inexplicably, the Obama administration and its allies in Congress seek to strip billions from our nation’s vital missile-defense funding at the precise moment when North Korea readies to test-fire a long-range ballistic missile potentially fit to carry a nuclear payload.

In brazen defiance of international sanctions, the regime of Kim Jong Il insists, the launch will occur no later than April 8. The North Korean Taepodong-2 possesses the range to strike not only several of our allies in Asia but also Alaska, Hawaii, and swaths of the American mainland.

A destabilizing force, North Korea uses its nuclear and missile programs to intimidate and coerce its neighbors. Perhaps no nation contributes more to the proliferation of missile technology and nuclear secrets.

Today Iran has experts on the ground in North Korea to assist with the launch. We must assume that Iran is sharing its long-range-rocket recipe with North Korea. We also have to assume that whatever North Korea learns from the test will be used for Iran’s benefit too – a scary thought since several experts say Iran has enough low-enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon.

Judging from a recent television interview of Defense Secretary Gates, it’s uncertain whether the administration intends to interdict the North Korean missile if it heads toward the United States. This is troubling, to say the least. I urge President Obama and Secretary Gates to place our global, integrated missile-defense architecture on high alert immediately. I also encourage the administration to renew with our allies the push toward a denuclearized Korean peninsula.

More generally, North Korea’s provocative conduct should lead the new administration to reconsider its national-defense priorities. As our enemies race to acquire new weapons that can do us harm or hold us hostage, we need to send a strong signal that the United States is not asleep at the wheel. North Korea and Iran must understand that we will match their missile efforts every step of the way and invest in superior defense systems.

That can’t happen if Congress cuts a rumored $2 billion from missile defense. The lack of funding would choke off resources for completing the deployment of current defenses and investing in the development of critical programs that could pay huge national-security dividends down the road.

We already have made tremendous progress in assembling a workable and effective missile-defense program. It includes radar tracking sensors, ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California, Aegis missile-defense ships, and Patriot batteries. Deterrent capabilities long thought impossible have been mastered and put into place. But more work needs to be done to perfect the performance record of our system before it’s too late.

Ten years from now, let us not look back upon these days with deep regret that we missed our chance to do what was necessary to protect our country. The ballistic-missile threat is real and growing, and it would be irresponsible not to defend against it.

On display for the whole world to see, North Korea is poised to remind us why.

Representative Eric Cantor plans to propose his “Responsible Homeowners Act” today in Washington. This bill seeks to assist homeowners in mortgage trouble by using market incentives.

“We’re trying to put private capital back into the home market and not relying on the government to buy up inventory,” Cantor said.

Read more at the Richmond Times-Dispatch