There's something missing before "was". Let's presume we're missing the pronoun 'it', and divide up the sentence like this: The government's assertion that it was over = subject did little to reassure = verb phrase the small businesses that were still struggling. = object In other words, the government claimed that something - a recession or financial crisis of some kind - was finished. However, this assertion did not reassure the struggling businesses very much. These businesses suffered under the recession, and they were still struggling now, so the government's 'reassurances' did not convince them.

I believe this is an error that was missed in editing. I think it should say: "The government's assertion did little to reassure the small businesses that were still struggling." The sentence means that the government said something to try to convince the struggling business owners that everything would be okay, but it was not effective because the business owners were unsure.

This text is wrong, please check the source and correct any errors.