Amid the debate over the federal budget and the failure to come to an agreement to avoid the sequester, eight in 10 Americans are unhappy with how things are going in Washington, including 30 percent who are angry, up nine points since December and the highest level of anger recorded […] Read more »
Americans OK Benefits for Federal Worker Same-Sex Spouses
By 54% to 39%, Americans say they would vote for a law giving marriage benefits, such as those for insurance, taxes, or Social Security, to spouses of federal employees in same-sex marriages. Support is predictably higher among Democrats than it is among Republicans. [cont.] Jeffrey M. Jones, Gallup Read more »
Americans divided on responsibility if govt. shuts down
With a possible federal government shutdown just one week away, a new national survey indicates that Americans say such a shutdown would be bad for the country. And according to a CNN/ORC International poll, if a shutdown happens, the public would hold President Barack Obama and congressional Republicans equally responsible. […] Read more »
Voters say debt is immediate problem, nervous about economy
American voters are nervous about the economy and — unlike some leaders in Washington — they think the country’s growing debt needs to be dealt with now. That’s according to a Fox News poll released Wednesday. About two-thirds of voters are feeling nervous about the economy — more than twice […] Read more »
Still true after 40 years: Voters prefer cuts in theory, spending in practice
In 1967, the political scientists Lloyd Free and Hadley Cantrill wrote that Americans were “ideological conservatives” but “operational liberals.” What they meant was that when asked broad questions about how government should work and what it should do, voters responded like conservatives. But when asked operational questions about which programs […] Read more »
People agree the sequester is bad. They don’t agree on how to fix it.
Big majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents believe that the sequester will hurt the economy and the military. But a newly released Washington Post-ABC News poll reveals that no proposed solutions to the sequester (of five tested) rallies majority support across party lines. That’s the conundrum facing Obama and Congress […] Read more »