Half of Small-Business Owners Give Administration High Marks

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.

	A	B	C	D	F
	%	%	%	%	%
Current presidential administration in Washington D.C.	24	25	15	11	24
Your state government	11	28	32	13	15
Supreme Court	10	26	38	10	9
Congress	4	17	28	22	27
Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, Jan. 3-9, 2018

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 to improve the overall economy and to create jobs. Half of owners also give the administration a good rating for tax reform targeted specifically at small business, and for its efforts on terrorism.

• Slightly less than half give a good rating for overall tax reform and for dealing with regulations impacting small business.

• The remaining four issues receive less positive ratings. Owners are more likely to give the administration a poor than a good rating for its handling of international relations, infrastructure improvements and healthcare reform.

	Good	Neutral	Poor
	%	%	%
Improving the overall economy	61	15	24
Job creation	53	23	24
Tax reform impacting small business owners specifically	50	21	28
Terrorism	50	23	27
Overall tax reform	49	20	30
Regulation reform impacting small business owners	46	27	26
Incentives for opening a small business	35	39	25
International relations	34	20	45
Infrastructure improvements such as roads and bridges	29	33	38
Healthcare reform	27	22	50
Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, Jan. 3-9, 2018

These ratings generally reflect the reality of the policy and economic situations in 2017. Multiple attempts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, often referred to as Obamacare, failed during the year, there was little progress on an infrastructure plan and U.S. relations with other countries were strained. On the other hand, record high stock market indices and low unemployment were clear signs of a strong economy. Small-business owners also appear to recognize the efforts of Donald Trump and the Republican Congress in passing major tax reform legislation that promised big tax breaks for businesses.

Bottom Line

Small-business owners have been bullish on the new administration since the November 2016 election, evidenced by the sharp increase in owners' overall optimism measured by the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index. These current results show more directly that owners tend to view the performance of the administration in positive light, although this praise is not universal.

President Trump appears to have carved out an image among small-business owners that is distinctly more positive than that of Congress, which gets the most negative ratings of the four government entities measured. This pattern mirrors the low esteem in which Congress is held by the population in general.

Owners appear cognizant of the specific areas in which the administration did well in 2017 -- an improved economy, job creation, tax reform -- and likely will remain equally as or more positive about the administration if it is able to address other pressing problems in the year ahead.