“Small businesses are the engines of our economy and the heart and soul of our communities,” President Joe Biden said in a July statement that sought to brag about his administration’s efforts to invest in small business entrepreneurs as part of his effort to “build the economy from the bottom up and the middle out,” also known as “Bidenomics.”
Despite Biden’s insistence about Build Back Better and its retread Bidenomics producing results for the middle class, small business owners couldn’t disagree more. In fact, 43 percent of America’s small businesses give President Joe Biden the grade of “F” when it comes to his efforts to help them thrive compared to just five percent that awarded Biden an “A.”
That’s according to the Job Creators Network Foundation’s August Small Business IQ Poll — previewed exclusively by Townhall — that saw 78 percent of small business employers give Biden a “C” grade or lower.
The Small Business IQ for August — based on questions about employers’ businesses, the U.S. economy, current economic climate, and future expectations and calculated on a scale of 0 to 100 with 100 being the best possible conditions and 0 being the worst — came in at 52.5, down from July’s 54.8 and the poll’s high-water mark of 63.5 seen in July 2021.
August’s Small Business IQ of 52.5 is the lowest recorded from respondents since the Job Creators Network Foundation launched the poll in May of 2021, and responses to the survey explain why.
Just 25 percent of small businesses said the economy is “excellent” or “good,” a four point drop from July’s poll, while 59 percent said the economy is getting worse, an increase from last month’s 51 percent.
Among a variety of challenges facing small businesses, the top concern is one familiar to many Americans: inflation. In the Small Business IQ Poll, 52 percent of small businesses rated higher prices as their biggest concern.