Job Creators Alliance's survey of 600 business owners shows that pervasive pessimism about Washington’s policies concerning free enterprise crosses party lines.

A new poll of 600 small businesses with 100 employees or less conducted on behalf of the Job Creators Alliance finds that a large majority of small business owners believe that Washington has become more hostile toward free enterprise in recent years. In an open-ended question, a quarter of the respondents volunteered taxes as the most important issue facing American small businesses, double the response for any other issue. Health care and government regulations were the next most frequently cited garnering 11% and 10% respectively.

Key Findings

• An overwhelming majority of small business owners believe that Washington’s policies have become more hostile toward free enterprise in recent years.  More importantly, nearly half of all small business owners believe Washington has become much more hostile toward free enterprise.  Furthermore, only 19% believe Washington’s policies have become less hostile.

“Thinking now about policies coming from Washington, do you feel that the environment has become more or less hostile toward free enterprise in recent years?”

• Pessimism about Washington’s policies concerning free enterprise crosses party lines.  Democrat small business owners split on this question, strongly suggesting that partisan polarization only goes so far on this question. 

• According to the Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute women-owned businesses will account for one-third of the new jobs created by 2018.  This survey finds that a strong majority of women who own a small business also see Washington as an adversary. 

• When we consider the depth of pessimism among small business owners towards Washington’s policies it should come as no surprise that a majority of minority-owned small businesses also see Washington’s policies as hostile toward free enterprise. 

• By a margin of 2 to 1, respondents to an open-ended question volunteered taxes as the single most important issue facing small businesses. The most frequently cited issues included:

• A majority of small business owners are concerned that the lack of spending restraint in the recent congressional deal to avert the fiscal cliff will impact their business. 

“Now I’d like to read you a few things about the deal Congress struck to avert the so-called fiscal cliff.  Thinking about the impact on your business, which one of the following aspects of this deal, if any, concerns you most?”

• Six out of ten small business owners believe that Obamacare will negatively impact their business in 2013.

“Do you think the new health care program, commonly known as Obamacare, will have a positive or negative impact on your business in 2013?”

As America’s small business owners look forward at 2013 they do so with a great deal of concern about the obstacles Washington is placing in their path.  As the engine of job creation, pessimism among small business owners does not bode well for job growth this year.