Small businesses are feeling the strain of rising costs. Maskot/Getty Images New York —

Surging import costs. Mounting payroll and healthcare expenses. A shortage of affordable loans. And a stressed-out workforce. Small businesses are facing mounting pressure from America’s affordability crisis.

Doug Scheffel, owner of a family-run ETM Manufacturing in Massachusetts, laid off about a quarter of his employees in April as the Trump administration’s haphazard tariff rollout dented demand for the machine parts and sheet metal his company sells.

“Everyone is hunkering down and building up cash. It’s never been this bad,” Scheffel told CNN in a phone interview. “It’s very uncertain and impossible to plan in this environment.”

Small businesses are the backbone of the US economy, accoun

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