One month after the most significant federal tax overhaul in more than 30 years, small business is feeling the love. And investing it back.

During the first 100 days of this year, we embarked on a small business listening tour around the country. As part of #LetsGrow campaign, we visited entrepreneurs in their hometowns, sat down with small business owners during their visits to Washington, and listened to job creators during roundtables and congressional hearings to hear what they had to say.

The MetLife & U.S. Chamber of Commerce Small Business Index is a new national quarterly survey of small business owners.

During the first 100 days of this year, we embarked on a small business listening tour around the country. As part of #LetsGrow campaign, we visited entrepreneurs in their hometowns, sat down with small business owners during their visits to Washington, and listened to job creators during roundtables and congressional hearings to hear what they had to say.

Small business owners don’t need haunted houses or horror movies. Washington gives them plenty of reasons to scream.

Last September, Chicago entrepreneurs Mark Robertson and Mike Sullivan opened the doors to Cantina 1910 in the city’s Andersonville neighborhood, culminating two years of planning, recruiting and extensive construction. Complete with a rooftop farm and boasting one of the region’s rising stars on the culinary circuit, the owners’ ambitious farm-to-table restaurant offered traditional Mexican cuisine sourced from Midwestern ingredients. In fact, the majority of the ingredients used in the restaurant were sourced from small farms within 200 miles of the Windy City.

The paradox: promising to create more good-paying jobs, and then promising to derail a free trade agreement that will make that happen.

"When we look at a loan, we’re now making a compliance decision, not a credit decision," a Kansas banker told Congress. "That’s wrong."

Silicon Valley was once little more than orchards and farmland. So where will the nation's next premier innovation hub emerge?

He steps into the role at a critical juncture but is optimistic: “Politics can be divisive, but I think business brings people together.”

"We have to be more imaginative about how we get things done," one of them said.

"It’s about more than concrete, asphalt and steel," one said of our infrastructure. "It ties us to everything that adds value to our lives."

Shaken, stirred, frozen... No matter how you take it, your margarita depends on trade. Don't believe me? Sip on these statistics.

America's small businesses aren’t wanting for challenges. So why on earth is the agency hell-bent on making their jobs ever harder?

The narrative about patent trolls snuffing out innovative startups only tells half of the story. Here's the other half.

Did you get your taxes done? Check. Did Congress make it any simpler? Nope.

Startup momentum is building in cities that you may not think to put in the same sentence with Silicon Valley.

The measures are the latest flawed attempt by lawmakers to push back against tax inversions. Here's what we should do instead.

“This is North America," the prime minister said at the U.S. Chamber. "We don’t fear the future, we invent it.”

“It's a shame, because there’s no question this election will have a major impact on the technology sector," one expert says.

Harold Jackson has always taken pride in offering health insurance to his 20 employees. But "each year it gets harder and harder," he says.

Boring? That's exactly how the team behind Google's Self-Driving Car Project wants it.

The agency has floated and finalized several rules recently that have had crippling effects on businesses in all five states.

One looming question, for instance: What would a United Kingdom "Brexit" from European Union mean for the negotiations?

Our government leaders are being forced to fight over a rapidly shrinking piece of the pie.

Last year's 10 most pirated films were illegally downloaded more than 360 million times, a steep increase over 2014.

Sure, the attention may be on the campaign trail. But that shouldn't stop lawmakers from taking steps to help small businesses this year.

"Uptown Funk" offers an important lesson about entitlement reform. Don't believe me? Just watch...

This week's TPP signing ceremony was a historic moment. But is it time to pop the champagne? Not yet.

Guacamole. Wings. Even the Vince Lombardi Trophy. They all depend on global trade.

"I can tell you in no uncertain terms that as mayors, these trade agreements mean jobs," one said last week.

They're among those with the most to gain from the deal - and by extension, they have among the most to lose if Congress drags its feet.

The White House "put business on notice" on Wednesday. The Chamber's CEO served notice right back on Thursday.

Ronna Rice, a special guest at the president's annual address to Congress, can speak to the benefits of global trade for small businesses.

One year into his presidency, Obama outlined his vision for the future of the country and the economy. Here's how those plans panned out.

In this instance, unfortunately, what happened in Vegas is happening all around the world, too.

In cities across the U.S., onerous and arbitrary rules are closing "an otherwise viable path to the American Dream," researchers say.

There's nothing small about the impact this year-end tax deal will have on small businesses.

While business leaders have made their views on the ruling clear, the messages coming from the Obama administration have been anything but.

Make that four major legislative victories for the U.S. business community in the past four days.

Jason Duff knows a thing or two -- okay, just about everything there is to know -- about running a small business.

After five long months, lawmakers are on the cusp of reauthorizing the (sorely missed) U.S. Export-Import Bank.

Congress is running out of time to take action on an assortment of expired and expiring tax provisions.

Those (blissfully stretchy) sweatpants many of us will change into after the feast? Yeah, there's a connection there, too.

Any additional delays in reviving Ex-Im would represent political and bureaucratic gamesmanship of the worst variety.

Maryland's former governor attempted to link two completely unrelated concepts during the debate in Des Moines.

Our country has been swept away by both presidential politics and fantasy football fervor. So why not blend them together?

U.S. businesses are drowning in a never-ending stream of red tape, and they need their next president to stem the tide.

The 45th president must embrace the fact that the U.S.'s continued economic vibrancy depends largely on trade and exports.

Congress is on the cusp of tackling our transportation funding shortage and reauthorizing the Ex-Im Bank - all in one fell swoop.

We congratulate Rep. Paul Ryan on becoming the new speaker of the House and look forward to working with him and his team.

Congress is nearing the finish line on long-awaited (and much-needed) cybersecurity legislation.

It’s hard enough navigating D.C.'s maze of regulations. It’s downright impossible when following one rule means breaking another.

President Obama's cyber treaty with China may be a step in the right direction - but it isn't enough.

Did a woman sue Disney for stealing the "Frozen" plot from her life story, or did a man sue McDonald's for giving him only one napkin?

In separate hearings this week, lawmakers took the NLRB and DOL to task for holding back small businesses.

How many more days will pass (and how many more jobs will vanish) before Congress listens?

Congress has - and too often abuses - the power to simply push pause on important issues. Business leaders don't have that liberty.

One small discovery for man. One giant leap for the EPA?

Midsized businesses are being squeezed, and not by their small and large counterparts.