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Which US presidential candidates seems the best for startups?

2 points by ap22213 ↗ HN
With the 2016 election cycle ramping up, and with a new executive coming in, I'm wondering which candidates seem to have the best positions for technology and startups? Please don't turn this into a political discussion. But, given the importance of the executive branch in guiding tech policies, I think it's important to understand the potential impacts.

6 comments

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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.

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?
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.

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?