Package Deal

Entrepreneurs are taking a close look at the Bush administration's economic stimulus plan to determine how it will ultimately affect their businesses. The primary focus of the plan is the speeding-up of the schedule for individual income-tax rate reductions, which were laid out originally in the 2001 tax-cut bill.

The president has said entrepreneurs are heavily represented among those who pay the current top income-tax rate of 38.6 percent. The 2001 bill dropped that rate to 37.6 percent in 2004 and to 35 percent in 2006. The proposed stimulus plan will move the 35 percent rate to 2004. "Individual rate cuts are a powerful stimulant to small-business investment and job creation," says Jerry Jasinowski, president of the National Association of Manufacturers.