Small-business owners are more concerned about the administration\u2019s emerging $1 trillion healthcare plan, which will drive up their costs, and with the new taxes that are aimed squarely at the income groups into which owners of small firms generally fall. So they won\u2019t expand or hire.<\/p>\n
Which is why the White House is so unhappy. The only indicator that matters to the president is jobs, jobs, jobs, about which he quizzes his staff every day. That\u2019s another way of saying votes, votes, votes. The latest polls show that the portion of Americans approving Obama\u2019s handling of the economy has dropped from 58% to 50% in the past six months, approval of his handling of the deficit is down from 49% to 40% and that 67% believe it is \u201cnot possible\u201d\u009d that his healthcare plan will not add to the deficit. Nevertheless, the president remains personally popular. He would like to keep it that way and is considering a programme that would give tax credits to employers who add to their workforces.<\/p>\n
Consumers are the third unhappy group, completing the gloomy business-political-consumer troika.<\/p>\n