Poll: Small businesses want government out of the way

By Bernie Becker - 01/18/12 02:48 PM ET

The vast majority of small-business executives think the country is offtrack — and that government needs to get out of the way, according to a new poll commissioned by a leading business advocate.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey found that small businesses are particularly worried about government regulations and fear that the healthcare law and other legislation will impede their efforts to hire new workers.

In all, 85 percent of the small-business executives said the United States is on the wrong track, with roughly eight in 10 saying they would rather the government simply step aside rather than try to help them.

Roughly half of the small-business executives also said regulations are a bigger threat to them than either taxation or litigation.

The poll, conducted by Harris Interactive in late December, comes as Republican lawmakers — and presidential candidates — have slammed President Obama and Democrats over regulations, saying the government has been stifling job creators.

The White House has worked to streamline regulations, announcing plans last August that the administration projected could save $10 billion over five years.

The president’s jobs council also targeted regulations in its newest report, released this week, though that plan has received some pushback from union leaders.

The executives surveyed were also not exactly pleased with anybody in Washington, but trained most of their ire onto government bureaucrats. Forty-seven percent said government employees were the biggest issue, with Obama (29 percent) also being viewed as more of a problem than Congress (18 percent).

Most public opinion polls have found the public at large has a better view of the president than Congress.

Around half of the executives surveyed in the poll said the economy in general was their biggest hurdle, with a similar percentage saying they weren’t certain whether America’s best days were already over.

But while only one in 10 said they thought the economy as a whole was progressing, 45 percent said the economy in their area was heading in the right direction — with seven in 10 saying their business in particular was on the right track.

The poll surveyed 1,322 small-business executives in all, using companies that had less than 500 employees and $25 million in yearly revenues.