Rasmussen...
What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls
Saturday, December 10, 2011 

Maybe it’s the holiday season or maybe it’s an indicator of things to come. Last month, the Rasmussen Employment Index signaled a slight drop in the national unemployment rate, subsequently borne out by government figures. Now consumer and investor confidence are improving. 

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, is up five points from a month ago. Consumer confidence for the full month of November was the highest it has been since June. Its companion Rasmussen Investor Index, which measures daily confidence among investors, is also up several points from three months ago. Yet more than 60% of both groups believe the country remains in a recession. 

Nevertheless, we’ll be watching to see whether this is the start of improving economic trends or simply a temporary aberration. 

Still, only 17% of Likely U.S. Voters think the country is heading in the right direction, down nine points from this time last year. Since the third week in July, the number of voters who are confident in the nation’s current course has resembled levels measured in the final months of the Bush administration. 

Most voters also now share the pessimistic view that America’s best days are behind us. Just 32% say the country’s best days are in the future, while 52% think the best days are in the past, the third time this year that more than half have felt this pessimistically about the future and just one point below the all-time high of 53% reached in April. 

Despite the improvement in the unemployment rate, more Americans than ever know someone who is out of work and looking for a job. The number who expect unemployment to be lower a year from now (21%) remains at an all-time low.

At the same time, the number of adults who believe it is possible for anyone in America to work hard and get rich is at its highest level (35%) in nearly three years. But one-out-of-two still don’t share that belief. 

Congress is again debating whether to extend the funding that makes possible up to 99 weeks of state and federal unemployment benefits, but Americans continue to express skepticism about benefits that last that long. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of Adults believe 99 weeks is too long a period to provide unemployment benefits. Forty-three percent (43%) think providing unemployment benefits for that long actually increases the number of people who remain unemployed, although that view is down slightly from a year ago. 

Americans are a bit more evenly divided when it comes to whether the economy benefits from the government hiring the unemployed, but nearly a third still thinks the government should do nothing for the long-term unemployed. 

Perhaps helping to feed the opposition to more government hiring is the continuing belief by sizable majorities that government employees don’t work as hard, make more money and have more job security than those who work in the private sector. 

But one-out-of-four Americans still believe the government should manage the U.S. economy. Nearly as many, however, say the government should mind its own business. 

As our elected officials continue to haggle over ways to cut the federal budget, more voters than ever believe the country spends too much on the military and national security. Thirty-eight percent (38%) think America spends too much on defense, up five points from January. Only 19% now believe the United States does not spend enough in this area, while 34% feel the level of spending is about right. 

One big area of savings will be the end of the nearly nine-year-old war in Iraq. Most voters (55%) remain convinced that the United States should never have invaded Iraq in March 2003 and believe all U.S. troops should be brought home by the end of this month as planned. 

Speaking of the budget process, voters for decades have elected candidates who promised to reduce government taxes and spending, but government spending has gone up every single year since 1954. Voters don’t understand how this has happened but recognize the result is a massive budget deficit that threatens future generations. Politicians blame voters and claim there is no public support for specific spending cuts. In his new book The People’s Money: How Voters Will Balance the Budget and Eliminate the Federal Debt, Scott Rasmussen shows that claim to be a lie. 

You can now pre-order Scott’s new book, The People’s Money, which is coming out in January. If you’re in the holiday shopping mode, an autographed collectibles edition  of The People’s Money  is also available. 

A generic Republican candidate holds an eight-point advantage over President Obama – 49% to 41% - in a hypothetical Election 2012 matchup for the week ending Sunday, December 4. This is the largest gap measured between the two since early September. 

Most voters continue to be unhappy with the job the president is doing as measured by the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, but Obama still fares better in head-to-head matchups with named Republican candidates. 

Read the rest of the article at Rasmussen