NEW YORK — Surging import costs. Mounting payroll and health-care 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 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,” Mr. 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 U.S. economy, accounting for the vast majority of total businesses in the nation, nearly half of all employe

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