September 30, 2013
Down
to the final days of the nation’s current spending plan, with negotiations over
a new one at a standstill, nearly half of small business owners are in favor of
shutting the government down, according to a new poll.
Researchers
at Pepperdine University’s Graziadio School of Business and Management
conducted the survey, which found that 48 percent of business owners support at
least a temporary government shutdown, compared to 42 percent who say
policymakers should hurry up and strike a deal. Of the poll’s 1,387
respondents, more than 90 percent own businesses with no more than 200 workers.
Half
of respondents said they could get behind a shutdown for up to a month, and
nearly a third would support shuttering the government for up to three months.
Beyond
that, three in four business owners worry their firms would start to be affected
by the closure, and nearly all believe the economy would start to suffer. Among
employers with less than $5 million in annual revenue, 41 percent said a
shutdown of more three months would force them to pull back on their hiring
plans.
Meanwhile,
on what has become one of the more critical questions for some elected
officials — which party would be at fault — business owners spread the blame
around evenly, with 28 percent of employers saying they would fault Democrats
and 27 percent pointing fingers at Republicans. Forty-three percent would blame
the two parties equally, according to the poll.
At
the root of the current stalemate are disputes over issues like the federal debt ceiling, tax increases and, most
importantly, funding for the health care reform law, known as Obamacare. House
Republicans have threatened to shoot down any agreement that continues to
finance the health care overhaul, while Senate Democrats refuse to take up any
measure that would impede rollout of the legislation.
If
the two parties cannot find common ground by the end of the day Monday, most
federal government operations will come to a halt.
And
while some employers clearly support that move, others say it could have a devastating
impact on their companies.
“A
shutdown would immediately suspend approval of Small Business Administration
loan guarantees, and you can imagine the disruption and potentially fatal
impact that could have on start-up businesses,” Betsy Burton, a bookstore owner
in Salt Lake City, Utah, told On Small Business. “This is a particularly
critical issue in the last quarter of the year when we must pay for inventory
we’ve acquired for the holiday season.”
Burton
called the threat of a shutdown a potential “disaster, one we might not
survive.”
Frank
Knapp, president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce, says
Burton’s company is not alone. On Main Street, he explained, employers rely on business from
both the government and its employees.
“The
possibility of nearly 3 million federal workers including military being told
to either stay home or work with delayed pay will cause severe problems for
many small businesses in large and small communities across the country,” Knapp
said.
“If
Congress wants to hurt our small businesses, shutting down the government will
do it,” he added.
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