As the current session of Congress comes to a close without significant action to address illegal immigration, neither Republicans nor Democrats are especially happy with the way their respective parties have dealt with the issue. CONT. Pew Read more »
Americans Still Trust Local Government More Than State
As they have for more than a decade, Americans continue to trust their local governments (72%) more than their state governments (62%). Both levels of confidence in 2014 are unchanged from last year, and are only a few percentage points off from their historical averages. CONT. Justin McCarthy, Gallup Read more »
Public Sees Religion’s Influence Waning
Nearly three-quarters of the public (72%) now thinks religion is losing influence in American life, up 5 percentage points from 2010 to the highest level in Pew Research polling over the past decade. And most people who say religion’s influence is waning see this as a bad thing. Perhaps as […] Read more »
Beyond the Election: Americans’ Priorities for Their Elected Representatives
Much of the focus of pollsters and public opinion experts this election season is on the question of who is going to win control of the House and the Senate. Who is going to win is important, but a more lasting concern is what the public thinks the House and […] Read more »
Americans know surprisingly little about their government
Americans show great uncertainty when it comes to answering basic questions about how their government works, a national survey conducted by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania has found. … While little more than a third of respondents (36 percent) could name all three branches of […] Read more »
Americans Say Federal Gov’t Wastes 51 Cents on the Dollar
Americans estimate that the federal government wastes 51 cents of each tax dollar. This matches their prior estimate in 2011, which was the highest Gallup had measured since 1979. Americans are less harsh about their state and local governments, viewing them as wasting 42 cents and 37 cents, respectively. CONT. […] Read more »