December 31, 2025 • 35 mins
In this episode of Main Street Matters, Elaine Parker speaks with Guy Berkebile, founder of Guy Chemical Company, about the significant impact of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act on small businesses. They discuss Berkebile's entrepreneurial journey, the challenges he faced, and how tax policies have enabled him to invest in his company and community. The conversation also touches on the importance of retaining youth in small towns, the implications of tariffs and trade policies, and the future of American manufacturing.
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
America is home to thirty three million small businesses, the
beating heart of communities across the country, and prove that
the American dream is still alive. This is a show
about those dreamers and doers and the communities they serve,
their real life stories, their spriddles and successes, their grit,
(00:29):
determination and passion, and the people who fight.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
To keep their American dream alive.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm Alfred h Ortiz, I'm a Lane Parker, and it's
time for another episode of Main Street Matters, America's Small
Business Megaphone. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of
main Street Matters, America's Small Business Megaphone. I'm a Lane Parker,
the president of the Job Creator's Network Foundation, and today
(00:55):
we're joined by our very good friend Guy Berkebaio. Guys,
a successful entrepreneur in the founder of Guy Chemical Company,
which is a Pennsylvania based specialty chemical company known for
its global reach and award winning export record. Guy, thank
you for joining us again.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, thank you. Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, You've been on the show a couple of times,
but this is a very special time because we just
saw the one big beautiful bill go over the finish
line on the signed into law on the fourth of July.
Great birthday to the country. Happy Birthday America.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
But you've been in.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
This fight with us for a long time. Just to
give our audience, you know, some background. You were part
of our original Tax Cuts Now campaign when we were
fighting for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in twenty seventeen,
and so I just thought it would be interesting if
you spent just a couple of minutes talking about, you know,
(02:00):
some of the things that were happening for you from
a perspective of your company, your taxes. You were paying
at a fifty percent tax rate when you added in
your state taxes. Kind of walk through what kind of
obstacles your company faced prior to the passage of the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and then we'll move into
(02:24):
what happened after and how this new bill helps.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Like many small business owners, Guy Chemical was a sub
Chapter S corporation.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
So what that means is.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
That the income of Guy Chemical, you know, the money
that we made, would be reported on my personal income
tax and it would be taxed at my personal rate.
So prior to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the
tax rate between my state, federal, and local was about
(03:00):
fifty percent. So my bottom line for every dollar I made,
I was, you know, giving had approximately half of it
back to the government, you know, and we always wanted,
you know, as a as a business owner, we always
feel that we have better ability to you know, to
(03:23):
make use of our money than than the government.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
We the more money that we have in our pockets,
the more we can invest in growing our companies, and
not only growing our companies, but also investing in our
employees with higher wages, better benefits.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And bonuses as well. Uh you know. So you know,
I joined j C G j C N and we.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Lobby for the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,
which has been you know, greatly beneficial to the growth
of Guy Chemical.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
And how did you when you first started the business.
I mean there were years you weren't making money, right,
I mean you were sleeping at you at your office, right,
I mean it was hard times when you started this business.
I mean, talk to us about what it really means
to put, as my father used to say, put out
(04:16):
a shingle and run your own business.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yeah, I'm smiling because you remember the sleeping of my business.
So it's really a great entrepreneurial story which is one
reason why you know, Trump was intrigued by the story
of how I started my business. And when I started
my company, I took about you know, I had my
(04:42):
house paid off, I had my car paid off, so
it was a good time for me to start a business.
But I had about eighty thousand dollars worth of savings.
I got a small business first Pennsylvania backed loan was
is a low interest loan for seventy thousand dollars, and
then I mortgage my house and going to I mortgaged
my house for the first time to use it, you know,
(05:05):
for working capital, to pay for inventory and you know,
keep cash in the company.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So you had your whole life on the line I did.
I mean, you know I failed. Your family was going
to be homeless, correct.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I bet my my family's financial future on starting, you know,
my business, and I lost money for about two and
a half years. I didn't pay myself a salary for
five years. I mortgaged my house a total seven times
over the first fourteen fifteen years. You know that my
(05:38):
company existed, and you know, I had to keep mortgaging
my house in order to get loans to finance the growth.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
In my company.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
You know, and when you're small, you know, banks aren't
willing to just give you a money, you know, give
you money without having the collateral to back that up
in case your company failed. And I'm not sure what
the national rates are, but in Pennsylvania, seven out of
every ten new businesses fail within the first five years.
(06:07):
And so if you're a bank, are going to be cautious.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You know. So Guy Chemical not only beat those.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Seven out of ten odds, but you know, we kept
breaking all the odds with the size of our business.
We grew to a high of tuner and twenty five employees.
You know, we do business all around the world, and
you know, have a great workforce and a good thing
(06:35):
about having it. You know, where I go into talk
to high school classes about entrepreneurship, I always tell them
whenever you have a manufacturing company in your community, you
have a company that's capable of employing everyone. You know,
everyone from the unskilled laborer to to the accountant and
the lawyer.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And that's interesting because you live in a small town
in Pennsylvania, Somerset, which is near where one of the
nine to eleven planes went down, not too far from me.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
As a matter of fact I live, I look over
that way because that's where the plane went down that way.
I live right beside in a community, right beside the
craft side of flight ninety three.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Wow. Okay, yeah, very.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Proud, very very American county.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So when the Task Has in Jobs Act passed, there
was this twenty percent passed through deduction. You explained the
the s corp and how the revenue flows through to
your individual tax turn and you play at your individual
tax rates. So you had a twenty percent tax deduction
that you could shield twenty percent of that revenue from taxes,
(07:53):
and then you had the immediate expensing provision. What were
you able to accomplish over these last eight years since
the passage of that bill, with with that kind of policy.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
With us being a chemical manufacturing company, you know, we
do everything from the research and development into develop new
formulations to the mixing and the packaging, and we give
our customers a finished product, uh you know, ready to
go on the shelf of a Walmart or a home depot,
(08:28):
Michael Craft stores. You know, in our products you know
go all the way to Russia.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
So we we have a global reach, but we have
a lot of equipment that we need to in order
to produce our products. So, prior to the text cousin
job Zac, whenever we would buy a piece of equipment,
we could only adduct a portion of that over.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
A period of years. Is so a portion of it
every year for a period of.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Years, isn't it like thirty seven years or something like that.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
No, the equipment is no more than ten years.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So ten years, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
You know. So you know, straight line deduction.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
If we had a piece of equipment that cost one
hundred thousand dollars, we could deduct ten thousand dollars of
it per year, and yeah, you know. And the logic
behind it is, you don't you know that that equipment
lasts for many years.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
You don't use it all up in.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
The first year, right, So what the Trump Tax Cuts
and Jobs Act did was it allowed companies like Mike
myself to deduct off of our taxes, you know, off
of our earnings, the entire cost of that equipment in
the year that.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
We bought it.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
So in year one, if we had if we bought
a piece of equipment worth one hundred thousand dollars, we
deducted one hundred thousand dollars, and that makes projects that
we take on.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
More afordable.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
You know, if we can lower our taxes, it makes
the projects more affordable, more attractive for us to expand
our business.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
So so what what did you use all of those
tax or tax savings, tax earnings, tax savings to do
within your business?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I mean you, I read that you expanded your facility,
hired people.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Talk us through the translation.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
The flow of government lets you keep more of your
own money, you invest in your business, your business grows.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Walk us through that slow chart.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Yeah, so we uh, you know, being being an entrepreneur,
you know, I'm always watching pennies. And we literally had
our lab in my old office, so that shows you that,
you know, as my company grew, my lab was crowded.
We had people on top of each other in a lab.
(11:01):
So what this immediate appreciation helped us to do was
to build a lab, a twenty five hundred square for
a lab, you know, that was like five times larger
than our old lab. We furnished the lab, We bought
additional mixing equipment where we mix our formulations, and then
also additional packaging equipment. And beyond that, we also increased
(11:27):
bonuses to our employees, and we paid our employees bonuses
to begin with, you know, before the Taxes and Jobs Act.
But this increased allowed us to increase the bonuses to
our employees and increased salaries to them. And if people
remember back, the Taxes and Jobs Act took effect in
(11:48):
twenty seventeen, and you know, our business was growing, you know,
at a steady rate prior to the passage of the
Taxes and Jobs Act. After the Taxes and Jobs Act passed,
we literally one from here to here. We had a
over thirty percent growth in twenty seventeen. We added over
(12:08):
thirty employees. You know, our company was smaller than so
thirty employees was was like increasing our workforce by thirty percent,
you know. So it added greatly to our ability to
take on projects and grow our business.
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One of the stories that I've heard you tell many times,
and I love hearing it. I've retold your story probably
(13:54):
a thousand times, is that you do live in a
small town in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
And one of the things you.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Know, you are considered a big employer in your small town,
and you're a manufacturer. You can employ, like you said,
from the janitor to the engineer. But one of the
things that you've talked about is that for the first
time is that your town was seeing your youth leave
because of jobs.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
The youth was leaving.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
That is catastrophic for a city to not have future
generations there the towns die. And so you were able
to for the first time offer a retirement package for
one k to really offer a career for people that
(14:44):
they could retire in.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah, I'm a past you know, with us being a
small community, I'm a past president of the Chamber of
Commerce in his own you know, I'm very tapped into
our our business community here and our county over an
extended period years. I'm not sure how many years we
have a population loss. We have more people leaving the
(15:09):
county than are coming in. So you know, a lot
of people here, like you know, we need companies who
can employ professionals you know who we're even beyond professionals,
you know, the tradesmen. You know, they need companies. We
need companies where these people, these young people can go
(15:29):
and get a good paying job and stay in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
And what my company does you know.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
We we have engineers that we need, chemists that we need,
and you know, to the point where we're not only.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Employing local employees.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
But we're we're going out and we're searching for engineers
and chemists outside of our area and we're bringing them
into Somerset, you know, and that's really where you get
your growth and the growth that this wage growth is
important for increasing the tax base in our county.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And the domino effect of that of bringing people in,
of allowing people to have a career with companies like
yours in small towns is they stay and that brings in,
you know, that ensures that you have doctors, that you
have hospitals, that you have infrastructure, that you have the
ability to keep your electrical grid going. I mean, I
(16:32):
could go on and on and on about the importance
of when you talk about keeping your youth in that
town and how it all leads back for you to
the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, to a policy that
says that encouraged you to invest, that encouraged you to hire,
that encouraged you to grow, and allowed you to keep
(16:54):
more of your own money, not so you could not
because you're this rich guy who's going to go and
buy a yacht and sail away and never give back
to your community. It's because you reinvested back in your
community and you it's you people like you times twenty
six million other small businesses just like yours that utilized
(17:20):
the policies that that twenty percent tax deduction and that
im mediate expensing across the country times twenty six million
small business employers. And the impact of that was exponential.
And when you talk when you think about what the
Democrats were going to allow the Tax Cuts and Jobs
(17:43):
Act to expire because because it let's good into some
of the sausage making. No Democrats voted for the Tax
Cuts and Jobs Act. They said it was tax cuts
for the rich. It didn't help anybody, just the rich.
And so because of that, because it was passed through reconciliation,
it had an end date. They call it a sunset.
(18:06):
It was going to expire on its own, no one
had to do anything about it, and it was going
to go away at the end of this year twenty
twenty five. And if it had gone away, we wouldn't
have just lost your provisions, the small business provisions. We
had lower individual tax rates that were included the fifteen
(18:29):
and the twenty twenty two percent tax rates went away.
So We had a twelve percent tax rate that went
all the way up to incomes as high as one
hundred thousand dollars for individuals. I mean we under the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, we had doubled the standard deduction,
We had doubled the child tax credit. These are provisions
(18:52):
that went directly to middle class taxpayers. They were all
going to expire. We were talking about a four trillion
dollar tax increase on our American economy, which would have
been devastating, and the Democrats were going to let that expire.
How do you think that would have impacted your company?
(19:14):
What would have been your as a business owner? What's
your reaction to a policy that is so not encouraging
to investment.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Well, the number of the Trump was throwing out there
was if the Tax Catching Jobs Act was not extended
the tax savings, you know, the average American would have
experienced a sixty eight percent tax increase, the largest in
the history of our country, and that would have been devastating.
You would have seen the exact opposite is, you know,
(19:46):
effect on our economy then what the tax cuts did
to grow it? You know, you would have seen businesses contract,
you know, in downsize for the most part. With your
taxes increased sixty eight percent, that's less money that I
have in my pocket, you know, the other business owners
(20:06):
have in their pockets in order to invest in their companies, in.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Their employees.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So the one big beautiful bell passed and we've avoided
the the you know, sort of the catastrophic cliff we
were driving towards in a big way and we made
but and yeah, it made it better. But what it
did was it well, we had seen the immediate depreciation
had already expired.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
That was pretty much at about twenty percent.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
It was sort of a decreasing It was one hundred
percent the first year, and then it went down every
year and we're I think we're at about twenty percent.
So now we're at one hundred percent immediate expensing. It's permanent,
so it's not going to decrease over time, which is great.
The twenty percent is passed through is permanent. The lower
tax individual tax rates are permanent, the standard deduction permanent,
(21:00):
the child tax credit went up. We have new tax
cuts that are directly targeted to middle class, no tax
on tips, no tax on overtime, and an additional deduction
for seniors. So no tax on Social Security up to
a certain level. Those are not permanent. And it's interesting
(21:21):
because I'm seeing coverage of criticisms that those are not
permanent provisions. But the Democrats didn't come to the table
with anything ideal wise on how to make it permanent.
They literally did nothing. Those are provisions that don't go
to rich. I mean, now, when your employees work overtime
for you, you're hourly people, it's that overtime is.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Tax free, correct, Yeah, And ever since COVID, you know,
we fought the battle of getting especially younger employees, getting
younger employees to shive up for work on a consistent basis,
I know, more or less to work overtime hours. You know,
now they have an incentive to work overtime that they
(22:06):
know that they're not going to be paying any federal
taxes on that on that overtime and the uh, you know,
we are seeing improvements already in our employees attendance.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I know you struggled after COVID with higher new hires,
first of all getting them, but then you said, you know,
if you had twenty people show up on the first day,
by the end of the week, you had about four
people at the end of the week who actually stayed
because of the labor shortage was so bad.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Well, you know, on the immediate expensing of capital. You know,
most people are familiar with the multiplicity of money. You know,
if if whenever I, as a business owner, earned a dollar,
you know, I pay it to my employee. My employee
goes out and spends out on groceries. The grocery store
takes that dollar, and you know, they'll give it to
one of their suppliers. That supplier will use it to
(23:00):
pay for you know, for their labor and their goods
and services they need in order to grow their crops.
You know, So one dollar goes you know, multiplies and
goes into many people's hands. The same thing happens and
you buy a piece of equipment. Whenever I'm expanding and
I buy a new piece of equipment, I need to
(23:21):
place an order with my equipment supplier. He then goes
out and has to place orders with all of his
suppliers for all the components, you know, and pay his labor.
Those component suppliers have to pay their suppliers to buy
their their supplies. And that's really where you get this
this rapid growth in the economy when there's companies like myself,
(23:45):
and especially true for manufacturing companies. You know where we
need to buy equipment to make our products new. But
we're not a financial services We are a roll up
your sleeves and you know, get your hands dirty type
of company. And that's what we need America, and that's
what President Trump is bringing back to America. And the
(24:05):
whenever I mentioned earlier that the Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act is now better, we can now deduct not only
our capital expenditures or equipment, but also our land. If
we want to build a new factory, the land and
the building is now deprisonable. The research and development one
(24:30):
hundred percent of the research and development costs that we
put in to.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Develop our products, which we do.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
One hundred percent of those research and development costs or deductible.
That's adding gas, and that's throwing gasoline on the US
economy fire, and it's just going to burn hotter and
grow faster because of these policies that Prisident Trump's putting through.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And I've quoted you many times on that depreciation because
you and I, you and I sat on a stage
together when with the Vice President Pence when he was
traveling the country to talk about the Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act, and you and I sat on the stage
together and you said the twenty tax deduction was great,
(25:17):
but the immediate expensing was a game changer. I mean
that's been that's been the word is the game changer,
and what you described it is a game changer, and
that is what made the economy soar and will make
the economy sore again. I think that the Democrats are
so afraid of the success that this bill will bring
(25:38):
because I don't think they und I don't think they
understood how good the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was
going to be and was. And the only thing that
allowed them to win or and come back in twenty
twenty was COVID. I mean that that is that's why
they were able to get back. If it had been
(25:59):
just about the economy and COVID had never happened, there
would have been no stopping a second term for Trump.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Because the policies were.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Working and the economy was roaring.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
One thing I noticed.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
With Trump's cabinet, this cabinet is second term as opposed
to his first term. Whenever I was at the White
House for the one big beautiful event, you know, promoting
the passage of this, you know, one big beautiful bill.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
We sat right behind.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
His cabinet, and his entire cabinet was zero except for
Christy Noman and Vice President Vans.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
They're very noticeable. They are very cohesive group.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
They come in and they start chatting with each other
and you know, co mingling, and you can tell from
talking with them that they're all dedicated in, you know,
towards a Trump mission. They're all heading in the same direction.
And I got an opportunity. One of my favorite members
of Trump's current administration is Treasury Secretary Bessant. If you're
(27:14):
not you know, guy chemicals big into exporting and importing.
We were the twenty thirteen Small Business Administrator Administration's Export
of the Year. If you're not involved with import and export,
you really do not see how other companies are taking
advantage of the United States and these policies that Bessent
(27:38):
is putting through, you know, you know, using tariffs.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Is spot on.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
He has a very good understanding of what we see
as as exporters.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Can you give us some examples and kind of walk
us through some of that, because I know, because We've
said all along that the tariffs are a tool to
the playing field and open up more markets, and that
Trump has the leverage because everyone wants to do business
with us. But combined with the tax cuts, I mean,
it's going to be incredible.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
So, prior to Trump's first term, whenever we imported from China,
the United States levied a three percent tariff on goods
coming from China. Whenever I would sell the same products
to China, which I did at the time, they levied
a forty five percent terror fifteen times higher, you know,
(28:36):
And how is that fair?
Speaker 3 (28:38):
You knows, it's not fair.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Under Biden's administration, sinter Trump increased that, you know, obviously,
and under Biden's administration, the terrri if on goods coming
from China was increased to twenty eight percent. A lot
of people think that Trump is just increasing tariffs on China,
which is not the case, you know. You know, Biden
had tariffs on China, so we were leving a twenty
(29:05):
eight percent tariff on China. China was levying forty five
percent on our products going over there, where we're now
at at a forty five forty eight percent tariff on
goods coming from China, you know, so things are balanced,
But the price that we're paying for our products, and
(29:29):
we import polymer and fluid silicon, polymer silicon fluid we
use in our formulations from China, the price that we're paying,
even with the higher higher tariffs, is lower today than
they were this same time last year. So if tariffs
are going to cause inflation in the United States, where
(29:49):
is it is not happening. And that's what I talked
to TES Treasury Secretary Besson about is that tariffs are
not an indication of inflation.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
They do not cause it inflation.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
So what do you see like on the horizon with
the tariffs. Do you think that we're going to kind
of stay in this tariff higher tariffs or do you do?
You do you see it as more of a leverage
and a tool and the idea is to get all
the tariffs down lower and fairer.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Yeah, I do, and I think they're being used as
a tool at this point, you know, a care to
bring companies to the negotiating table. I think they're primarily
the countries who are willing to work with the United
States and we're out of trade deal. We're probably going
to end up somewhere in a ten percent range, you know,
which historically we've been at three percent. Trump's going to
(30:50):
use these turfs to lower taxes on the United States
and to increase revenues.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
And that is one thing that the.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Democrats are not taking, uh, you know, into account whenever
they're talking about this one big beautiful bill that they
see that we're going to increase spending, but they're not
talking about how we're increasing revenue at the same time.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
And that revenue is when is what is going to
enable us to start paying down the debt.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Countries that historically have not worked well trade wise in
the United States, like China and India. Indias has been terrible.
I've never been able to do business there my entire
business career because of all the blocks that they put
in place against US companies. I think those terrors are
(31:46):
going to remain higher than than companies like Vietnam and Uh. Eventually,
I hope Canada, you know, whenever they come in eventually
come to a to a good trade deal. And I
heard today that or no, I heard yesterday that Trump
just put a fifty percent tariff onto Brazil.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Have you heard that.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
I have not seen that.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Yeah, Brazil, we do. We've historically done a quite a
bit of business in Brazil. Brazil has a forty percent
tira iff, historically forty percent tariff on US goods, while
we had a three percent tariff on their goods.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
So how do people not see that as wrong as
it's just not fair, like, I mean three percent versus
forty percent? How can Americans truly say, well, that's not fair.
I mean, all we're asking for is a level playing field.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Well, the answer is the people who don't want to
give Trump a victory. You know, That's what it boils
down to. You know, they why would you not want
a stronger, richer America. You know, stronger, richer, safer is
what I say, right.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Right, So.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
What do you think on the horizon for American manufacturing.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
I'm very excited about American manufacturing these policies. You know,
I always say, nobody knows my business better than I do.
You know, I grew it. It's like a baby. I
grew it from nothing. I made the sacrifices. You didn't
accept the salary for five years? More is my house?
You know, seven times the finance growth. Nobody knows it
(33:27):
better than I do, and nobody can run it and
grow it better than I can. So we just want
the government to get off our backs allow entrepreneurs to
do what we do best, and that's run our businesses.
What the Trump policies are doing is, you know, it's
removing red tape, putting more money in our pockets, which
(33:51):
is going to enable us to grow our companies. You know,
the easier you make it on us, the more we're
going to grow our businesses.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I mean, it sounds pretty simple to me.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
Quick question for you. Did you ever think that we
have a president that would reverse the trend of manufacturing
leaving the US and going overseas. I mean, that's what
we're seeing now.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, and we're having companies from overseas come here and.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Invest correct and trillions of dollars of investment. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
And again there's there's no credit to the policies that
are being implemented and being implemented at a breakneck speed,
I might say, And yeah, I think I usually tell
my friends who have a different opinion than I do,
which you know they're welcome to, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
We'll save the country for you too.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Well, guy, thank you so much for coming on and
spending some time with us. I think your point of
view is so valuable because you truly are on the
front lines of so many areas and policies that you
can give perspective on, and I think it's important to
help educate Americans and to kind of break through the
(35:14):
sort of the media noise that is I think tana
amount to poison. What's being fed to the American public
is tan amount to poison.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
So I really.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Appreciate your time and thank you all for taking the
time to tune into main Street Matters. We are America's
small business megaphone. Main Street Matters is part of the
Salem Podcast Network. New episodes debut every Wednesday and Friday.
You can subscribe to the show wherever you get your
podcasts from, and we'll be back soon with another episode.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Thanks
America is home to thirty three million small businesses, the
beating heart of communities across the country, and prove that
the American dream is still alive. This is a show
about those dreamers and doers and the communities they serve,
their real life stories, their spriddles and successes, their grit,
(00:29):
determination and passion, and the people who fight.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
To keep their American dream alive.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
I'm Alfred h Ortiz, I'm a Lane Parker, and it's
time for another episode of Main Street Matters, America's Small
Business Megaphone. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of
main Street Matters, America's Small Business Megaphone. I'm a Lane Parker,
the president of the Job Creator's Network Foundation, and today
(00:55):
we're joined by our very good friend Guy Berkebaio. Guys,
a successful entrepreneur in the founder of Guy Chemical Company,
which is a Pennsylvania based specialty chemical company known for
its global reach and award winning export record. Guy, thank
you for joining us again.
Speaker 3 (01:12):
Yeah, thank you. Great to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:14):
Yeah, You've been on the show a couple of times,
but this is a very special time because we just
saw the one big beautiful bill go over the finish
line on the signed into law on the fourth of July.
Great birthday to the country. Happy Birthday America.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
But you've been in.
Speaker 1 (01:36):
This fight with us for a long time. Just to
give our audience, you know, some background. You were part
of our original Tax Cuts Now campaign when we were
fighting for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in twenty seventeen,
and so I just thought it would be interesting if
you spent just a couple of minutes talking about, you know,
(02:00):
some of the things that were happening for you from
a perspective of your company, your taxes. You were paying
at a fifty percent tax rate when you added in
your state taxes. Kind of walk through what kind of
obstacles your company faced prior to the passage of the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, and then we'll move into
(02:24):
what happened after and how this new bill helps.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
Like many small business owners, Guy Chemical was a sub
Chapter S corporation.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
So what that means is.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
That the income of Guy Chemical, you know, the money
that we made, would be reported on my personal income
tax and it would be taxed at my personal rate.
So prior to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the
tax rate between my state, federal, and local was about
(03:00):
fifty percent. So my bottom line for every dollar I made,
I was, you know, giving had approximately half of it
back to the government, you know, and we always wanted,
you know, as a as a business owner, we always
feel that we have better ability to you know, to
(03:23):
make use of our money than than the government.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
You know.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
We the more money that we have in our pockets,
the more we can invest in growing our companies, and
not only growing our companies, but also investing in our
employees with higher wages, better benefits.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
And bonuses as well. Uh you know. So you know,
I joined j C G j C N and we.
Speaker 4 (03:46):
Lobby for the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,
which has been you know, greatly beneficial to the growth
of Guy Chemical.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
And how did you when you first started the business.
I mean there were years you weren't making money, right,
I mean you were sleeping at you at your office, right,
I mean it was hard times when you started this business.
I mean, talk to us about what it really means
to put, as my father used to say, put out
(04:16):
a shingle and run your own business.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Yeah, I'm smiling because you remember the sleeping of my business.
So it's really a great entrepreneurial story which is one
reason why you know, Trump was intrigued by the story
of how I started my business. And when I started
my company, I took about you know, I had my
(04:42):
house paid off, I had my car paid off, so
it was a good time for me to start a business.
But I had about eighty thousand dollars worth of savings.
I got a small business first Pennsylvania backed loan was
is a low interest loan for seventy thousand dollars, and
then I mortgage my house and going to I mortgaged
my house for the first time to use it, you know,
(05:05):
for working capital, to pay for inventory and you know,
keep cash in the company.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
So you had your whole life on the line I did.
I mean, you know I failed. Your family was going
to be homeless, correct.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I bet my my family's financial future on starting, you know,
my business, and I lost money for about two and
a half years. I didn't pay myself a salary for
five years. I mortgaged my house a total seven times
over the first fourteen fifteen years. You know that my
(05:38):
company existed, and you know, I had to keep mortgaging
my house in order to get loans to finance the growth.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
In my company.
Speaker 4 (05:47):
You know, and when you're small, you know, banks aren't
willing to just give you a money, you know, give
you money without having the collateral to back that up
in case your company failed. And I'm not sure what
the national rates are, but in Pennsylvania, seven out of
every ten new businesses fail within the first five years.
(06:07):
And so if you're a bank, are going to be cautious.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
You know. So Guy Chemical not only beat those.
Speaker 4 (06:15):
Seven out of ten odds, but you know, we kept
breaking all the odds with the size of our business.
We grew to a high of tuner and twenty five employees.
You know, we do business all around the world, and
you know, have a great workforce and a good thing
(06:35):
about having it. You know, where I go into talk
to high school classes about entrepreneurship, I always tell them
whenever you have a manufacturing company in your community, you
have a company that's capable of employing everyone. You know,
everyone from the unskilled laborer to to the accountant and
the lawyer.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
And that's interesting because you live in a small town
in Pennsylvania, Somerset, which is near where one of the
nine to eleven planes went down, not too far from me.
Speaker 4 (07:11):
As a matter of fact I live, I look over
that way because that's where the plane went down that way.
I live right beside in a community, right beside the
craft side of flight ninety three.
Speaker 2 (07:22):
Wow. Okay, yeah, very.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
Proud, very very American county.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:29):
So when the Task Has in Jobs Act passed, there
was this twenty percent passed through deduction. You explained the
the s corp and how the revenue flows through to
your individual tax turn and you play at your individual
tax rates. So you had a twenty percent tax deduction
that you could shield twenty percent of that revenue from taxes,
(07:53):
and then you had the immediate expensing provision. What were
you able to accomplish over these last eight years since
the passage of that bill, with with that kind of policy.
Speaker 4 (08:07):
With us being a chemical manufacturing company, you know, we
do everything from the research and development into develop new
formulations to the mixing and the packaging, and we give
our customers a finished product, uh you know, ready to
go on the shelf of a Walmart or a home depot,
(08:28):
Michael Craft stores. You know, in our products you know
go all the way to Russia.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
You know.
Speaker 4 (08:36):
So we we have a global reach, but we have
a lot of equipment that we need to in order
to produce our products. So, prior to the text cousin
job Zac, whenever we would buy a piece of equipment,
we could only adduct a portion of that over.
Speaker 3 (08:57):
A period of years. Is so a portion of it
every year for a period of.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Years, isn't it like thirty seven years or something like that.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
No, the equipment is no more than ten years.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
So ten years, okay, yeah.
Speaker 3 (09:10):
You know. So you know, straight line deduction.
Speaker 4 (09:12):
If we had a piece of equipment that cost one
hundred thousand dollars, we could deduct ten thousand dollars of
it per year, and yeah, you know. And the logic
behind it is, you don't you know that that equipment
lasts for many years.
Speaker 3 (09:27):
You don't use it all up in.
Speaker 4 (09:28):
The first year, right, So what the Trump Tax Cuts
and Jobs Act did was it allowed companies like Mike
myself to deduct off of our taxes, you know, off
of our earnings, the entire cost of that equipment in
the year that.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
We bought it.
Speaker 4 (09:47):
So in year one, if we had if we bought
a piece of equipment worth one hundred thousand dollars, we
deducted one hundred thousand dollars, and that makes projects that
we take on.
Speaker 3 (09:59):
More afordable.
Speaker 4 (10:00):
You know, if we can lower our taxes, it makes
the projects more affordable, more attractive for us to expand
our business.
Speaker 5 (10:12):
So so what what did you use all of those
tax or tax savings, tax earnings, tax savings to do
within your business?
Speaker 1 (10:22):
I mean you, I read that you expanded your facility,
hired people.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Talk us through the translation.
Speaker 1 (10:31):
The flow of government lets you keep more of your
own money, you invest in your business, your business grows.
Speaker 2 (10:39):
Walk us through that slow chart.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
Yeah, so we uh, you know, being being an entrepreneur,
you know, I'm always watching pennies. And we literally had
our lab in my old office, so that shows you that,
you know, as my company grew, my lab was crowded.
We had people on top of each other in a lab.
(11:01):
So what this immediate appreciation helped us to do was
to build a lab, a twenty five hundred square for
a lab, you know, that was like five times larger
than our old lab. We furnished the lab, We bought
additional mixing equipment where we mix our formulations, and then
also additional packaging equipment. And beyond that, we also increased
(11:27):
bonuses to our employees, and we paid our employees bonuses
to begin with, you know, before the Taxes and Jobs Act.
But this increased allowed us to increase the bonuses to
our employees and increased salaries to them. And if people
remember back, the Taxes and Jobs Act took effect in
(11:48):
twenty seventeen, and you know, our business was growing, you know,
at a steady rate prior to the passage of the
Taxes and Jobs Act. After the Taxes and Jobs Act passed,
we literally one from here to here. We had a
over thirty percent growth in twenty seventeen. We added over
(12:08):
thirty employees. You know, our company was smaller than so
thirty employees was was like increasing our workforce by thirty percent,
you know. So it added greatly to our ability to
take on projects and grow our business.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
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One of the stories that I've heard you tell many times,
and I love hearing it. I've retold your story probably
(13:54):
a thousand times, is that you do live in a
small town in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
And one of the things you.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Know, you are considered a big employer in your small town,
and you're a manufacturer. You can employ, like you said,
from the janitor to the engineer. But one of the
things that you've talked about is that for the first
time is that your town was seeing your youth leave
because of jobs.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
The youth was leaving.
Speaker 1 (14:23):
That is catastrophic for a city to not have future
generations there the towns die. And so you were able
to for the first time offer a retirement package for
one k to really offer a career for people that
(14:44):
they could retire in.
Speaker 4 (14:46):
Yeah, I'm a past you know, with us being a
small community, I'm a past president of the Chamber of
Commerce in his own you know, I'm very tapped into
our our business community here and our county over an
extended period years. I'm not sure how many years we
have a population loss. We have more people leaving the
(15:09):
county than are coming in. So you know, a lot
of people here, like you know, we need companies who
can employ professionals you know who we're even beyond professionals,
you know, the tradesmen. You know, they need companies. We
need companies where these people, these young people can go
(15:29):
and get a good paying job and stay in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
And what my company does you know.
Speaker 4 (15:37):
We we have engineers that we need, chemists that we need,
and you know, to the point where we're not only.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
Employing local employees.
Speaker 4 (15:50):
But we're we're going out and we're searching for engineers
and chemists outside of our area and we're bringing them
into Somerset, you know, and that's really where you get
your growth and the growth that this wage growth is
important for increasing the tax base in our county.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
And the domino effect of that of bringing people in,
of allowing people to have a career with companies like
yours in small towns is they stay and that brings in,
you know, that ensures that you have doctors, that you
have hospitals, that you have infrastructure, that you have the
ability to keep your electrical grid going. I mean, I
(16:32):
could go on and on and on about the importance
of when you talk about keeping your youth in that
town and how it all leads back for you to
the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, to a policy that
says that encouraged you to invest, that encouraged you to hire,
that encouraged you to grow, and allowed you to keep
(16:54):
more of your own money, not so you could not
because you're this rich guy who's going to go and
buy a yacht and sail away and never give back
to your community. It's because you reinvested back in your
community and you it's you people like you times twenty
six million other small businesses just like yours that utilized
(17:20):
the policies that that twenty percent tax deduction and that
im mediate expensing across the country times twenty six million
small business employers. And the impact of that was exponential.
And when you talk when you think about what the
Democrats were going to allow the Tax Cuts and Jobs
(17:43):
Act to expire because because it let's good into some
of the sausage making. No Democrats voted for the Tax
Cuts and Jobs Act. They said it was tax cuts
for the rich. It didn't help anybody, just the rich.
And so because of that, because it was passed through reconciliation,
it had an end date. They call it a sunset.
(18:06):
It was going to expire on its own, no one
had to do anything about it, and it was going
to go away at the end of this year twenty
twenty five. And if it had gone away, we wouldn't
have just lost your provisions, the small business provisions. We
had lower individual tax rates that were included the fifteen
(18:29):
and the twenty twenty two percent tax rates went away.
So We had a twelve percent tax rate that went
all the way up to incomes as high as one
hundred thousand dollars for individuals. I mean we under the
Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, we had doubled the standard deduction,
We had doubled the child tax credit. These are provisions
(18:52):
that went directly to middle class taxpayers. They were all
going to expire. We were talking about a four trillion
dollar tax increase on our American economy, which would have
been devastating, and the Democrats were going to let that expire.
How do you think that would have impacted your company?
(19:14):
What would have been your as a business owner? What's
your reaction to a policy that is so not encouraging
to investment.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
Well, the number of the Trump was throwing out there
was if the Tax Catching Jobs Act was not extended
the tax savings, you know, the average American would have
experienced a sixty eight percent tax increase, the largest in
the history of our country, and that would have been devastating.
You would have seen the exact opposite is, you know,
(19:46):
effect on our economy then what the tax cuts did
to grow it? You know, you would have seen businesses contract,
you know, in downsize for the most part. With your
taxes increased sixty eight percent, that's less money that I
have in my pocket, you know, the other business owners
(20:06):
have in their pockets in order to invest in their companies, in.
Speaker 3 (20:11):
Their employees.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
So the one big beautiful bell passed and we've avoided
the the you know, sort of the catastrophic cliff we
were driving towards in a big way and we made
but and yeah, it made it better. But what it
did was it well, we had seen the immediate depreciation
had already expired.
Speaker 2 (20:35):
That was pretty much at about twenty percent.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
It was sort of a decreasing It was one hundred
percent the first year, and then it went down every
year and we're I think we're at about twenty percent.
So now we're at one hundred percent immediate expensing. It's permanent,
so it's not going to decrease over time, which is great.
The twenty percent is passed through is permanent. The lower
tax individual tax rates are permanent, the standard deduction permanent,
(21:00):
the child tax credit went up. We have new tax
cuts that are directly targeted to middle class, no tax
on tips, no tax on overtime, and an additional deduction
for seniors. So no tax on Social Security up to
a certain level. Those are not permanent. And it's interesting
(21:21):
because I'm seeing coverage of criticisms that those are not
permanent provisions. But the Democrats didn't come to the table
with anything ideal wise on how to make it permanent.
They literally did nothing. Those are provisions that don't go
to rich. I mean, now, when your employees work overtime
for you, you're hourly people, it's that overtime is.
Speaker 4 (21:44):
Tax free, correct, Yeah, And ever since COVID, you know,
we fought the battle of getting especially younger employees, getting
younger employees to shive up for work on a consistent basis,
I know, more or less to work overtime hours. You know,
now they have an incentive to work overtime that they
(22:06):
know that they're not going to be paying any federal
taxes on that on that overtime and the uh, you know,
we are seeing improvements already in our employees attendance.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's interesting.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
I know you struggled after COVID with higher new hires,
first of all getting them, but then you said, you know,
if you had twenty people show up on the first day,
by the end of the week, you had about four
people at the end of the week who actually stayed
because of the labor shortage was so bad.
Speaker 4 (22:37):
Well, you know, on the immediate expensing of capital. You know,
most people are familiar with the multiplicity of money. You know,
if if whenever I, as a business owner, earned a dollar,
you know, I pay it to my employee. My employee
goes out and spends out on groceries. The grocery store
takes that dollar, and you know, they'll give it to
one of their suppliers. That supplier will use it to
(23:00):
pay for you know, for their labor and their goods
and services they need in order to grow their crops.
You know, So one dollar goes you know, multiplies and
goes into many people's hands. The same thing happens and
you buy a piece of equipment. Whenever I'm expanding and
I buy a new piece of equipment, I need to
(23:21):
place an order with my equipment supplier. He then goes
out and has to place orders with all of his
suppliers for all the components, you know, and pay his labor.
Those component suppliers have to pay their suppliers to buy
their their supplies. And that's really where you get this
this rapid growth in the economy when there's companies like myself,
(23:45):
and especially true for manufacturing companies. You know where we
need to buy equipment to make our products new. But
we're not a financial services We are a roll up
your sleeves and you know, get your hands dirty type
of company. And that's what we need America, and that's
what President Trump is bringing back to America. And the
(24:05):
whenever I mentioned earlier that the Tax Cuts and Jobs
Act is now better, we can now deduct not only
our capital expenditures or equipment, but also our land. If
we want to build a new factory, the land and
the building is now deprisonable. The research and development one
(24:30):
hundred percent of the research and development costs that we
put in to.
Speaker 3 (24:34):
Develop our products, which we do.
Speaker 4 (24:37):
One hundred percent of those research and development costs or deductible.
That's adding gas, and that's throwing gasoline on the US
economy fire, and it's just going to burn hotter and
grow faster because of these policies that Prisident Trump's putting through.
Speaker 1 (24:54):
And I've quoted you many times on that depreciation because
you and I, you and I sat on a stage
together when with the Vice President Pence when he was
traveling the country to talk about the Tax Cuts and
Jobs Act, and you and I sat on the stage
together and you said the twenty tax deduction was great,
(25:17):
but the immediate expensing was a game changer. I mean
that's been that's been the word is the game changer,
and what you described it is a game changer, and
that is what made the economy soar and will make
the economy sore again. I think that the Democrats are
so afraid of the success that this bill will bring
(25:38):
because I don't think they und I don't think they
understood how good the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was
going to be and was. And the only thing that
allowed them to win or and come back in twenty
twenty was COVID. I mean that that is that's why
they were able to get back. If it had been
(25:59):
just about the economy and COVID had never happened, there
would have been no stopping a second term for Trump.
Speaker 2 (26:05):
Because the policies were.
Speaker 1 (26:08):
Working and the economy was roaring.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
One thing I noticed.
Speaker 4 (26:16):
With Trump's cabinet, this cabinet is second term as opposed
to his first term. Whenever I was at the White
House for the one big beautiful event, you know, promoting
the passage of this, you know, one big beautiful bill.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
We sat right behind.
Speaker 4 (26:36):
His cabinet, and his entire cabinet was zero except for
Christy Noman and Vice President Vans.
Speaker 3 (26:44):
They're very noticeable. They are very cohesive group.
Speaker 4 (26:47):
They come in and they start chatting with each other
and you know, co mingling, and you can tell from
talking with them that they're all dedicated in, you know,
towards a Trump mission. They're all heading in the same direction.
And I got an opportunity. One of my favorite members
of Trump's current administration is Treasury Secretary Bessant. If you're
(27:14):
not you know, guy chemicals big into exporting and importing.
We were the twenty thirteen Small Business Administrator Administration's Export
of the Year. If you're not involved with import and export,
you really do not see how other companies are taking
advantage of the United States and these policies that Bessent
(27:38):
is putting through, you know, you know, using tariffs.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
Is spot on.
Speaker 2 (27:44):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (27:45):
He has a very good understanding of what we see
as as exporters.
Speaker 1 (27:51):
Can you give us some examples and kind of walk
us through some of that, because I know, because We've
said all along that the tariffs are a tool to
the playing field and open up more markets, and that
Trump has the leverage because everyone wants to do business
with us. But combined with the tax cuts, I mean,
it's going to be incredible.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (28:13):
So, prior to Trump's first term, whenever we imported from China,
the United States levied a three percent tariff on goods
coming from China. Whenever I would sell the same products
to China, which I did at the time, they levied
a forty five percent terror fifteen times higher, you know,
(28:36):
And how is that fair?
Speaker 3 (28:38):
You knows, it's not fair.
Speaker 4 (28:42):
Under Biden's administration, sinter Trump increased that, you know, obviously,
and under Biden's administration, the terrri if on goods coming
from China was increased to twenty eight percent. A lot
of people think that Trump is just increasing tariffs on China,
which is not the case, you know. You know, Biden
had tariffs on China, so we were leving a twenty
(29:05):
eight percent tariff on China. China was levying forty five
percent on our products going over there, where we're now
at at a forty five forty eight percent tariff on
goods coming from China, you know, so things are balanced,
But the price that we're paying for our products, and
(29:29):
we import polymer and fluid silicon, polymer silicon fluid we
use in our formulations from China, the price that we're paying,
even with the higher higher tariffs, is lower today than
they were this same time last year. So if tariffs
are going to cause inflation in the United States, where
(29:49):
is it is not happening. And that's what I talked
to TES Treasury Secretary Besson about is that tariffs are
not an indication of inflation.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
They do not cause it inflation.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
So what do you see like on the horizon with
the tariffs. Do you think that we're going to kind
of stay in this tariff higher tariffs or do you do?
You do you see it as more of a leverage
and a tool and the idea is to get all
the tariffs down lower and fairer.
Speaker 4 (30:26):
Yeah, I do, and I think they're being used as
a tool at this point, you know, a care to
bring companies to the negotiating table. I think they're primarily
the countries who are willing to work with the United
States and we're out of trade deal. We're probably going
to end up somewhere in a ten percent range, you know,
which historically we've been at three percent. Trump's going to
(30:50):
use these turfs to lower taxes on the United States
and to increase revenues.
Speaker 3 (30:57):
And that is one thing that the.
Speaker 4 (31:00):
Democrats are not taking, uh, you know, into account whenever
they're talking about this one big beautiful bill that they
see that we're going to increase spending, but they're not
talking about how we're increasing revenue at the same time.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
And that revenue is when is what is going to
enable us to start paying down the debt.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Countries that historically have not worked well trade wise in
the United States, like China and India. Indias has been terrible.
I've never been able to do business there my entire
business career because of all the blocks that they put
in place against US companies. I think those terrors are
(31:46):
going to remain higher than than companies like Vietnam and Uh. Eventually,
I hope Canada, you know, whenever they come in eventually
come to a to a good trade deal. And I
heard today that or no, I heard yesterday that Trump
just put a fifty percent tariff onto Brazil.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Have you heard that.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
I have not seen that.
Speaker 4 (32:11):
Yeah, Brazil, we do. We've historically done a quite a
bit of business in Brazil. Brazil has a forty percent
tira iff, historically forty percent tariff on US goods, while
we had a three percent tariff on their goods.
Speaker 1 (32:25):
So how do people not see that as wrong as
it's just not fair, like, I mean three percent versus
forty percent? How can Americans truly say, well, that's not fair.
I mean, all we're asking for is a level playing field.
Speaker 4 (32:40):
Well, the answer is the people who don't want to
give Trump a victory. You know, That's what it boils
down to. You know, they why would you not want
a stronger, richer America. You know, stronger, richer, safer is
what I say, right.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
Right, So.
Speaker 1 (33:01):
What do you think on the horizon for American manufacturing.
Speaker 4 (33:07):
I'm very excited about American manufacturing these policies. You know,
I always say, nobody knows my business better than I do.
You know, I grew it. It's like a baby. I
grew it from nothing. I made the sacrifices. You didn't
accept the salary for five years? More is my house?
You know, seven times the finance growth. Nobody knows it
(33:27):
better than I do, and nobody can run it and
grow it better than I can. So we just want
the government to get off our backs allow entrepreneurs to
do what we do best, and that's run our businesses.
What the Trump policies are doing is, you know, it's
removing red tape, putting more money in our pockets, which
(33:51):
is going to enable us to grow our companies. You know,
the easier you make it on us, the more we're
going to grow our businesses.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I mean, it sounds pretty simple to me.
Speaker 4 (34:05):
Quick question for you. Did you ever think that we
have a president that would reverse the trend of manufacturing
leaving the US and going overseas. I mean, that's what
we're seeing now.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
Yeah, and we're having companies from overseas come here and.
Speaker 3 (34:21):
Invest correct and trillions of dollars of investment. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (34:25):
And again there's there's no credit to the policies that
are being implemented and being implemented at a breakneck speed,
I might say, And yeah, I think I usually tell
my friends who have a different opinion than I do,
which you know they're welcome to, don't worry.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
We'll save the country for you too.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Well, guy, thank you so much for coming on and
spending some time with us. I think your point of
view is so valuable because you truly are on the
front lines of so many areas and policies that you
can give perspective on, and I think it's important to
help educate Americans and to kind of break through the
(35:14):
sort of the media noise that is I think tana
amount to poison. What's being fed to the American public
is tan amount to poison.
Speaker 2 (35:23):
So I really.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
Appreciate your time and thank you all for taking the
time to tune into main Street Matters. We are America's
small business megaphone. Main Street Matters is part of the
Salem Podcast Network. New episodes debut every Wednesday and Friday.
You can subscribe to the show wherever you get your
podcasts from, and we'll be back soon with another episode.
Speaker 2 (35:45):
Thanks
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