U.S. small-business owners who aren’t hiring — 85% of those surveyed — are most likely to say the reasons they are not doing so include not needing additional employees; worries about weak business conditions, including revenues; cash flow; and the overall U.S. economy. Additionally, nearly half of small-business owners point to potential healthcare costs (48%) and government regulations (46%) as reasons. One in four are not hiring because they worry they may not be in business in 12 months.
The next time some Democrat talks about “the recovery,” note that 66 percent of the small businesses who aren’t hiring say it’s because of worries about the national economy.
Three years ago, Obama declared:
I will be held accountable. I’ve got four years. A year from now, people are going to see that we’re starting to make some progress, but there’s still going to be some pain out there. If I don’t have this done in three years, then this is going to be a one-term proposition.
Three years from that statement would be February 2012. Obama has seven months to demonstrate a significant improvement in the economy he inherited.
I wonder if Rep. Jim Moran (D., Va.) regrets saying in June 2010, “The economy has recovered.”
I wonder if Tim Geithner regrets writing an op-ed entitled “Welcome to the Recovery” in the New York Times on August 2, 2010.
I wonder if Ron Sims, deputy secretary of housing and urban development, regrets writing on the White House blog that “this summer is sure to be a Summer of Economic Recovery” in June 2010.
Finally, I wonder if Debbie Wasserman Schultz regrets saying in June, “I’m going to take ownership right now because we began to turn the economy around.”