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Rasmussen...
What They Told Us:
Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Let the budget battle begin.
House Republicans, feeling empowered by an angry electorate, are
looking to cut billions of dollars from the federal budget and are now
discussing plans to defund the national health care law since repeal
has run aground in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
After all, the majority of voters still support repeal of the law and
remain convinced that it will drive up the cost and hurt the quality of
health care in the country.
As they have from the beginning of the health care debate, voters see
cost reduction as more important than ensuring universal coverage.
Sixty-two percent (62%) believe reducing the cost of health care is
more important than making sure that everyone has health insurance.
Just 29% think universal health insurance coverage is more important.
But other than recognizing that budgets at all levels of government
have grown too big, some Americans have a lot to learn about where
their tax dollars go.
In 1954, the average new house cost just over $10,000, a new car was
under $2,000, and gasoline was under 30 cents a gallon. It was also the
last year that overall government spending in America declined from one
year to the next. But only 60% of Americans believe that to be true.
Scott Rasmussen puts that in greater perspective in a new video.
Just 56% of voters recognize that the United States spends about six
times as much on national defense as any other nation in the world.
The defense budget is likely to take a sizable cut, so how do voters
think those dollars should be reallocated? For one thing, voters
overwhelmingly think terrorism is a bigger threat to the country than
traditional wars. But they have mixed feelings about refocusing the
military toward fighting terrorism.
Nearly half (48%) of voters think America would be a safer place with
less spending on the military and some of the savings put into securing
the borders.
Half (49%) also believe it is time to pull American troops out of
Western Europe and let the Europeans defend themselves. The numbers are
similar for Japan, but not South Korea.
Most voters continue to believe that the current policies of the
federal government encourage illegal immigration. However, voters are
now almost evenly divided over whether it’s better to let the federal
government or individual states enforce immigration laws.
The United States has military defense treaties with over 50 nations
around the globe from obvious ones like the United Kingdom and Germany
to less predictable ones like Costa Rica and Iceland. Rasmussen Reports
asked whether the United States should help militarily defend some of
these less prominent allies if attacked, but only Australia gets a
strong commitment from the American people.
Egypt is arguably America’s strongest Arab ally, but while voters
aren’t convinced that changing the government there is good for the
United States, they still feel strongly that America should stay out of
the political crisis engulfing the country.
With the crisis in Egypt dominating the headlines, most voters give
good marks to America’s chief diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton. Sixty percent (60%) hold at least a somewhat favorable
opinion of Clinton. Forty-four percent (44%) have at least a somewhat
favorable regard for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
The United Nations has been conspicuously absent from the diplomatic
activity surrounding the political crisis in Egypt, but few U.S. voters
lack an opinion of the New York-based international organization. Only
27% of voters regard the UN as an ally of the United States, while 15%
see the organization as an enemy. Fifty-four percent (54%) put it
somewhere in between the two. This is consistent with findings for some
time now.
While congressional Republicans hope to make major cuts in the federal
budget, President Obama has plans of his own for the economy. He told
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week that government and business
“can and must work together.” But 68% of voters think government and
big business already work together against the interests of consumers
and investors.
The Rasmussen Investor Index jumped at week’s end, continuing the
growth in investor confidence begun last year. Consumer confidence as
measured by the Rasmussen Consumer Index is also up slightly from the
first of the year.
Homeowners, on the other hand, continue to hold little hope for the
value of their house in the short-term and show no new confidence in
long-term recovery. Only 21% of Adults who own a house say its value
will go up in the next year. Even when asked about their home’s value
in five years, only 51% of homeowners say it will go up.
At the same time, the number of homeowners who say their home is worth
more than what they still owe on their mortgage (51%) has fallen to its
lowest level in nearly two years.
Interestingly, despite the anemic economy, half of all Americans now
own stocks, bonds or mutual funds, but most are also unaware of that
fact. But then while the United States boasts the world’s largest
economy, fewer than half the nation’s voters (45%) recognize this fact.
Whichever economic course they follow, the president and Congress
better be careful. Economists still argue about what caused the Great
Depression of the 1930s and what got the nation out of it. But 43% of
voters think government policy mistakes converted a normal recession
into an unprecedented Depression. Just 26% disagree, although 31% are
not sure.
The economy is sure be central to the upcoming presidential election,
and an early look at potential 2012 match-ups indicates that the
contest is likely to be a referendum on Obama. That’s typical when an
incumbent runs for reelection. The numbers show that Mitt Romney and
Mike Huckabee essentially run even with the president at this point.
Three other well-known potential candidates, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich
and Ron Paul, trail Obama.
On Friday, the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll found
that 50% of voters at least somewhat approved of the president’s
performance, while 49% disapproved.
Read the article, with links, at Rasmussen Reports
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