Mark Cuban visited about one-hundred entrepreneurs in Atlanta Thursday afternoon to answer questions during a town-hall. Cuban is one of Vice President Kamala Harris’s top surrogates. He discussed implementing policies friendly toward small businesses while reducing economic stress and uncertainty.Cuban runs Cost Plus Drugs, an online pharmaceutical company. In Atlanta, he reaffirmed the Vice President’s commitment to reducing healthcare costs by targeting pharmacy benefit managers.“She said that she’s going to go after the big pharmacy benefit managers, the big pharmacy middlemen to be very specific,” Cuban explained. “And she’s going to introduce transparency. Now I can tell you, because I’m in that business, doing those things will cut the cost for your health care or your prescription medications and your employees and their families and their kids by 20%-30%.” Entrepreneur Mark Cuban speaks during a town hall hosted by the Kamala Harris Campaign inside The Gathering Spot on Thursday, October 31, 2024 in Atlanta. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)The Harris administration plans to review tariffs and provide exceptions to help small businesses. A future Harris Administration plans to offer paths to citizenship/residency rather than mass deportation. Cuban made that point clear during the conversation. “Is it far-fetched to be here at your restaurant and an official knocks at your door and says, ‘I’d like to see a list of all your I-9 employees, their addresses and their phone numbers?”, Cuban says. “And could you imagine grandma, grandpa, who’s been here twenty, thirty years or more, are told, ‘ Sorry, get your ass out of here. Let’s get you on the bus.’ You think there’s a chance that could happen? Yeah, more than just a little chance.” During the conversation, Cuban took questions from the attendees. They ranged from entrepreneurs asking him about their products, his time on the hit show Shark Tank, and his vast experiences running businesses. Also, Harris has proposed a $50,000 tax deduction for startup costs, which can help offset expenses for new small businesses. Access to Capital is a struggle for Black EntrepreneursAccess to capital has long been an issue for Black-owned businesses. Ryan Wilson, CEO and Co-Founder of The Gathering Spot, always says, ‘Black businesses are over-mentored and under-funded.’ Cuban understands that dynamic. He tempered expectations and acknowledged there is no magic bean that will solve those problems under any administration. “Under the community development funds and from local banks the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), you should apply for all those things,” Cuban said regarding finding new ways to raise capital. “But, you still have to compete for it. There’s no silver bullet just to say, ‘this is the easy way.’ That’s part of being an entrepreneur. But I do believe that as interest rates come down, and sure looks like they will, more capital will free up.” Entrepreneur Mark Cuban, Ryan Wilson and TK Petersen, center, pose for photographs after a town hall hosted by the Kamala Harris Campaign inside The Gathering Spot on Thursday, October 31, 2024 in Atlanta. (Photo: Itoro N. Umontuen/The Atlanta Voice)A study by Pew Research concluded a majority Black American-owned businesses made up the greatest share of all classifiable firms in the District of Columbia, Georgia and Maryland. 58% of respondents say supporting Black businesses, or “buying Black,” is an extremely or very effective strategy for moving Black people toward equality.Additionally, there were an estimated 161,031 Black or African American-owned businesses with $183.3 billion in annual receipts, 1.4 million employees. Those businesses have $53.6 billion in annual payroll, according to the 2022 Annual Business Survey (ABS). The study references data collected in 2021. “I asked, ‘how many people here were helping other entrepreneurs?’ And half the people raised their hands,” Cuban explains. “So when you help build up a community, when you help build up a community of entrepreneurs, they build more entrepreneurs. You know, their kids turn into entrepreneurs, their grandkids turn into that. That’s how you build communities. Because that innovation, when it comes from your neighbors, that’s a big deal.”Cuban’s Atlanta visit comes at a time during which the Harris campaign is locked in a virtual dead heat with Donald Trump in Georgia. Nationally, Harris has a four point lead in the final ABC News/Ipsos poll.  The post Mark Cuban supports Kamala Harris’s economic policies in Atlanta town hall with business owners appeared first on The Atlanta Voice.