Half of Small-Business Owners Give Administration High Marks.
Byline: Coleen McMurray and Frank Newport
Synopsis: Nearly half of U.S. small-business owners give the current presidential administration an "A" or "B" grade for its first year performance.
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- About half of U.S. small-business owners give the current presidential administration a grade of A or B for its performance on issues that have been important to their businesses over the past year. This is significantly higher than the percentage of respondents who gave high marks to state government, the Supreme Court and Congress. At the same time, more than a third of owners give the administration a grade of D or F, reflecting the polarized nature of politics today.
These results are from the latest quarterly update of the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index survey conducted Jan. 3-9, before the brief government shutdown over the weekend of Jan. 20-22.
Clearly many small-business owners are positive about the administration's performance on issues that have been important to their business over the past year, echoing previous research showing owners' positive feelings for the business-friendly Trump administration. While small-business owners are positive toward the business-friendly Trump administration, they have little regard for the performance of Congress, even though both branches are under GOP control.
The Supreme Court and state government garner fewer very high and very low grades than the administration and Congress do. Not as many owners rate their state government or the Supreme Court with A's or B's as is the case for the administration, but owners also do not give the Supreme Court or the administration the same level of failing grades as the executive and legislative branches. More than three in 10 owners give their state government and the Supreme Court "C" grades.
The latest results come as small-business owners' overall optimism is as high as it has been since before the 2008/2009 recession, buoyed by their self-reports of strong revenue, improved cash flow and increased capital spending for their businesses.
Wells Fargo and Gallup also asked small-business owners to rate the Trump administration's performance on 10 different political and economic issues. The results vary widely, indicating that owners are distinguishing between areas of solid administration accomplishment versus areas where the results have been less evident.
Owners are most likely to give the administration a "good" rating on its ability...
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