from NYT:
Americans are more pessimistic about the nation’s economic outlook and overall direction than they have been at any time since President Obama’s first two months in office, when the country was still officially ensnared in the Great Recession, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
At a time of rising gas prices, stubborn unemployment and a cacophonous debate in Washington over the federal government’s ability to meet its future obligations, the poll presents stark evidence that the slow, if unsteady, gains in public confidence earlier this year that a recovery was under way are now all but gone.
Capturing what appears to be an abrupt change in attitude, the survey shows that the number of Americans who think the economy is getting worse has jumped 13 percentage points in just one month. Though there have been encouraging signs of renewed growth since last fall, many economists are having second thoughts, warning that the pace of expansion might not be fast enough to create significant numbers of new jobs.
The dour public mood is dragging down ratings for both parties in Congress and for President Obama, the poll found.
Disapproval of Mr. Obama’s handling of the economy has never been worse — up to 57 percent of Americans — a warning sign as he begins to set his sights on re-election in 2012. And a similar percentage disapprove of how Mr. Obama is handling the federal budget deficit, though more disapprove of the way Republicans in Congress are.
Still, for all the talk of cutting the deficit in Capitol Hill and Wall Street, only 29 percent said it would create more jobs — the issue of greatest concern — while 27 percent believed it would have no effect on the employment outlook, and 29 percent said it would actually cost jobs.
When it comes to reducing the deficit and the costs of the nation’s most expensive entitlement programs, the poll found conflicting and sometimes contradictory views, with hints of encouragement and peril for both parties.
Mr. Obama has considerable support for his proposal to end tax cuts for those earning $250,000 a year and more: 72 percent of respondents approved of doing so as away to address the deficit; 24 percent disapproved.
And, in what he can take as a positive sign for his argument the nation has a duty to protect its most vulnerable citizens, about three-quarters of Americans think the federal government has a responsibility to provide health care for the elderly and 56 percent believe it has a similar duty to the poor.
“Keep people’s taxes and give them medical benefits,” Richard Sterling, an independent voter of Naugatuck, Conn., said in a follow-up interview.
In what Republicans can take as a positive sign as they seek a more limited government, 55 percent of poll respondents said they would rather have fewer services from a smaller government than more services from a bigger one, as opposed to 33 percent who preferred the opposite, a continuation of a trend in Times/CBS polls.
And slightly more Americans approve than disapprove of a proposal by Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin to change Medicare from a program that pays doctors and hospitals directly for treating seniors to one in which the government helps seniors pay for private plans, though that support derived mostly from Republicans and independents, not Democrats. That result was at variance with that of a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll that found 65 percent opposed Mr. Ryan’s plan, suggesting results can vary based on how the question is asked.
Twice as many respondents said they would rather see a reduction in spending on federal programs that benefit people like them than an increase in taxes to pay for such programs.
Yet more than 6 in 10 of those surveyed said they believed Medicare was worth the costs. And, when asked directly about Medicare, respondents said they would rather see higher taxes than a reduction in its available medical services if they had to choose between the two.
Given an option between cutting military, Social Security or Medicare spending as a way to reduce the overall budget, 45 percent chose military cuts, compared with those to Social Security (17 percent) or Medicare (21 percent.)
For the most part, Americans split sharply along party lines when it comes to whom they trust most when it comes to the deficit, Medicare and Social Security.
But with 70 percent of poll respondents saying that the country was heading in the wrong direction, the public is not exhibiting particularly warm feelings toward officeholders of either party.
Most Americans think neither the Congressional Republicans nor Mr. Obama share their priorities for the country. Mr. Obama’s job approval remains below a majority, with 46 percent saying they approve of his performance in office as opposed to 45 percent who do not. And support for his handling of the military campaign in Libya has fallen off sharply since last month: 39 percent approve and 45 percent disapprove. In a CBS poll in March, 50 percent approved and 29 percent disapproved.
Republicans have their own challenges. More than half of poll respondents, 56 percent, said they did not have a favorable view of the party, as opposed to 37 percent who said they did. (The Democratic Party fared somewhat better: 49 percent did not have favorable views of it and 44 percent did).
At a time when the House speaker, Representative John A. Boehner of Ohio, increasingly becomes the face of his party in Congress, more disapprove of his job performance (41 percent), than approve of it (32 percent); 27 percent said they did not have opinion of him.
The general displeasure with office holders of both parties is reminiscent of the mood that prevailed last November, when anti-incumbent sentiment swept Democrats out of power in the House and diminished their edge in the Senate.
Frustration with the pace of economic growth has only grown since, with 28 percent of respondents in a New York Times/CBS poll in late October saying the economy was getting worse and 39 percent saying so in the latest poll.
“They’re saying it will get better, but it’s not,” Frank Tufenkdjian, a Republican of Bayville, N.Y., said in a follow-up interview. “I know so many people who are unemployed and can’t find a job.”
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Americans In Morose Mood
