

Which US presidential candidates seems the best for startups? - ap22213

With the 2016 election cycle ramping up, and with a new executive coming in, I&#x27;m wondering which candidates seem to have the best positions for technology and startups?  Please don&#x27;t turn this into a political discussion.  But, given the importance of the executive branch in guiding tech policies, I think it&#x27;s important to understand the potential impacts.
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Someone1234
A lot of people make the fatal mistake of conflating "good for business" with
"good for startups." A lot of these pro-business candidates actually pass a
lot of legislation which protects the incumbent businesses (who happens,
coincidentally, to be a large political contributor).

This is particularly true with many of the Republican candidates as much of
their leading contributors are large corporations (who startups hope to
disrupt, such as cable companies, cellular networks, food industry, etc). And
while the Democrats are certainly as corrupt, they often get their pay-offs
from sectors which won't negatively impact startups as often (e.g. unions,
education, alternative energy, etc). Although I will fully admit that they're
both equally in the financial service's industry pocket.

At the moment I don't know for sure who is running. Plus on top of that the
president doesn't actually have that much power (directly) to protect or hurt
startups. A lot of the issues come from legislation passed by the houses or
state stupidity.

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throwaway344
I think that the policy positions that given candidate takes on so-called
"business issues" are really impossible to separate completely from their
stance on other things. For instance, if you're a LGBT businessperson, being
accepted in your community is really important to your business.

On so-called business issues it could really depend. If someone from the
business-y branch of the GOP runs (Romney, et al) that could add some
experience in that area. Of course, if someone from the Brownback school of
politics runs, all that could mean would be fiscally irresponsible tax cuts.
The same is true for the Democrats.

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matt_s
What are pressing technology or startup related questions we should be asking
Presidential, House and Senate candidates to assess if they are worthy of our
votes?

Topics:

\- H1B Visa's - more?, less?

\- Sole Proprietorship tax advantages (i.e. lower income tax)

\- Tax advantages for companies/startups that are helping in areas like:
healthcare, education, infrastructure (not servers but roads, bridges, etc.)

\- Communications related areas of concern: cellular, broadband, cable. More
regulation? less regulation? net neutrality?

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jpetersonmn
"Please don't turn this into a political discussion"

You already did with that post. I'd like a candidate that has some business
experience, but realizes that the US government should NOT be run like a
business.

~~~
MalcolmDiggs
Right? How do we discuss political candidates without making it a political
discussion?

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gamechangr
Easily former CEO of HP

[http://recode.net/2014/11/26/former-hp-ceo-fiorina-
contempla...](http://recode.net/2014/11/26/former-hp-ceo-fiorina-
contemplates-2016-run-for-president/)

