The 2008 president election will offer small business owners a choice of two very different approaches to addressing their top concerns — the cost of health care, energy and federal taxes.

John McCain's campaign says a key to faster economic growth is helping small businesses.

The presumptive Republican nominee released a "Jobs for America" plan recently that aims to make it easier for small businesses to grow because they create the majority of jobs in America.

His agenda: lowering energy costs, controlling health care costs, changes in the tax code designed to make it "fair, pro-growth and competitive," and opening new markets through trade.

Obama hasn't promulgated a small business agenda per se, but he has taken positions on most of the major issues that concern small business owners.

In addition, Obama has two small business initiatives in his economic plan. He would eliminate federal capital gains taxes for startup businesses and spend $250 million annually to establish small business incubators in disadvantaged communities that would dispense shared resources or advice.

Obama recently added a third proposal — a tax credit for small businesses that offer health insurance to their employees that would offset half the cost of employer premiums.

The cost of health insurance is the No. 1 issue facing small businesses, according to a February survey by the National Federation of Independent Business, the nation's largest small business organization. The cost of fuel — natural gas, gasoline, diesel and home heating oil — ranked No. 2.

Several of the top issues — property taxes and state taxes — aren't federal matters, but the top 10 also included federal taxes on business income, tax complexity, unreasonable government regulations and electricity costs.

The survey, which ranked 75 issues, also found some variance between the issues most on the minds of small business owners and what the candidates think is at the top.

McCain's small business agenda includes his support for expanding international trade. The ability to export products or services ranked last in importance in the NFIB survey and competition from imported products ranked No. 66.

Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a senior policy adviser to McCain and a former director of the Congressional Budget Office, theorized that small businesses don't rate international trade as an important issue because they support the current policies in Washington. He predicted that international trade would rank much higher in the next NFIB survey if Democrats were able to pass protectionist trade proposals.

McCain recently traveled to Colombia to demonstrate his support for a bilateral trade deal with that country, which House Democratic leaders have refused to bring to a vote.

Obama opposes the Colombia pact. He's promised to not approve new trade deals unless they include labor and environmental standards. And he's pledged to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement. During a February debate in Cleveland, he said in reference to NAFTA, "I think we should use the hammer of a potential opt-out as leverage to ensure that we actually get labor and environmental standards that are enforced."

What the NFIB survey did show is that many of the top issues for small business owners are also the top issues that average voters cite in national polls.

Health care costs and access to affordable insurance is a top issue for both employers and employees. And at many mom-and-pop businesses, the employees include spouses, relatives and business partners.

McCain and Obama disagree on how to make health insurance more widely available to the nearly 47 million Americans without coverage. McCain wants to make it easier for individuals and families to buy their own insurance by providing them with tax credits. Obama would expand coverage my mandating that parents obtain coverage for their children and make it more affordable to do so by expanding two government programs targeted at low-income families — Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Their approach to putting a lid on the cost of energy also differs.

Obama has campaigned against the gasoline tax holiday proposed by McCain. He opposes the authorization of new federal leases for oil and gas drilling that McCain supports. And he opposes the rollback of the federal tax on imported ethanol that McCain advocates.

Both support alternative fuels, but McCain also supports construction of 45 new nuclear power plants by 2030.

On taxes, McCain would keep the top rate on individual income taxes at 35 percent and lower the corporate rate to 25 percent. Obama has no specific plan for lowering corporate tax rates, but would eliminate the write-offs corporations take when they shift production overseas. Obama also would allow the top income tax rate to rise to the 2001 level of 39.6 percent.

McCain also took a potshot at the Democrats' presumptive nominee, Barack Obama. "If you are one of the 23 million small business owners in America who files as an individual rate payer, Senator Obama is going to raise your tax rates," he said.

However, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center says Obama's proposal to raise the top individual rates would, at most, affect 663,000 individuals in the 33 percent and 35 percent tax brackets who are expected to report business income on their 2009 tax returns.

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