A new survey out this week underscores the study by independent accounting firm Ernst & Young that shows President Obama’s tax hike on small businesses will destroy more than 700,000 jobs (a fact Speaker John Boehner notes the president didn’t dispute yesterday).

According to The Hill, the survey – conducted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – discovered that the president’s “fiscal cliff” is “hampering small businesses from hiring,” with 89 percent of small business owners saying the tax hikes scheduled for January 1 “will hurt their firms.”

The National Federation of Independent Business says the small business tax hike will “result in a smaller economy, fewer jobs, less investment, and lower wages.”  It joins a long list of other Obama administration policies – highlighted by the Chamber survey – that threaten to bury our economy:

• “76% of small businesses say the health care bill makes it harder to hire more employees,” according to the survey.  The House voted to fully repeal the president’s health care law, and has successfully repealed several slush funds and provisions that hurt small businesses.
• The same number – 76 percent – says “higher energy prices threaten their business.”  The House has passed several bills expanding energy production and stopping policies that drive up gas prices.  Unfortunately, these bills remain stuck in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
• “Over four-fifths of the executives said the $16 trillion debt burden the U.S. carries is affecting their business growth,” says Reuters.  As Speaker John Boehner recently said, the House has already begun “the process of reforming our tax code, reducing spending, saving Medicare, and reforming other critical programs that are heading toward bankruptcy” to address our debt.
• Among those surveyed, a majority “expects to hold off hiring into 2013,” reports The Hill.  The looming tax hikes are a “sucker punch” on job creators, says Speaker Boehner, and “President Obama’s failure to lead spells more uncertainty at a time when Americans can least afford it.”

Economists also fear the fiscal cliff, and say the mere threat of these tax hikes is already hurting job growth.  They warn that all of the tax hikes must be stopped to prevent further damage.

Despite the warnings, “President Obama’s Democratic allies in the Senate remain hell-bent on raising taxes on small businesses,” says Speaker John Boehner.  “Even if it means driving over the fiscal cliff” and tanking our economy.  Senate Democrats are blocking 39 other House-passed jobs bills too.

The House of Representatives, on the other hand, has acted to avoid the fiscal cliff.  In August, the House passed a bipartisan bill to stop all of President Obama’s tax hikes on middle class families and small businesses.  And in May, the House also voted to protect our troops by replacing the defense ‘sequester’ with common-sense spending cuts and reforms.

“We know what needs to be done to get our economy moving again,” said Speaker Boehner.  “But we need a president willing to listen and lead, and this president is doing neither.”