Rasmussen
What They Told Us: Reviewing Last
Week’s Key Polls
Saturday,
April 06, 2013
Americans
like a level playing field, but that’s not what they see
these days.
As
April 15 approaches, half of Americans think they are paying
more than their fair share in taxes to Uncle Sam.
Forty-eight
percent (48%) think the federal government puts more
focus on making Wall Street profitable than on making sure the U.S.
financial
system works well for all Americans.
Scott
Rasmussen’s weekly newspaper column says that to fight
inequality, it's time to end the college admissions scam. There is a problem when
“some people earn big
bucks simply because they can game the system in ways that aren't
available to most
Americans," he says. “In America today, one of the biggest parts of
gaming
the system unfairly can be traced to the elite universities.”
Seventy-one
percent (71%) believe accepting only the most
qualified students for admission is better than giving preference to
alumni
families, just 23% mistakenly believe that’s the way it works. Most
Americans
don’t think it’s fair for colleges to give special treatment to
children of
large donors.
On
other topics, most Americans don’t believe the federal
government has the constitutional authority to tax bank deposits as
they did in
Cyprus to help fund a bank bailout. But 46% think it’s at least
somewhat likely
that the U.S. government will try to tax money in individual bank
accounts.
Fewer
than half of voters now believe the federal government
should have the final say when it comes to environmental protection,
and they
remain critical of the Environmental Protection Agency and its impact
on the
economy.
In
advance of Friday’s disappointing report on job creation, the
Rasmussen Employment Index had fallen for three straight months.
Workplace
confidence in the labor market is at the lowest level since November.
There
also is growing concern about the long-term prospects for
the economy. Only 36% of Americans now think the U.S. economy will be
stronger
five years from today. That’s
the lowest
level of long-term confidence we’ve ever measured. Sixty-four percent
(64%)
felt that way in early March 2009, but confidence has been declining
ever
since. Looking in the short term, 32% say the U.S. economy will be
stronger a
year from today, but 46% feel it will be weaker.
Americans
remain pessimistic about the housing and stock markets,
too. Just 19% think the stock market will be higher a year from today.
Nearly
half (48%) of adults still think it will take housing prices more than
three
years to recover from the downturn that began in 2008.
On
Friday, 27% of consumers said their personal finances are
getting better, but 38% felt they are getting worse.
Fifty-nine
percent (59%) of all Americans think it’s at least
somewhat likely that the United States will soon face another financial
industry meltdown similar to the 2008 crisis.
Most
voters (55%) still believe policies that encourage economic
growth are more important than those promoting economic fairness, but
they’re
also less convinced that there is a conflict between the two.
Most
Americans continue to see poverty as a problem in the United
States, but only 10% actually claim they are living in poverty.
America
Works founder Peter Cove joins Scott Rasmussen on this
weekend’s edition of What America Thinks to discuss his life’s work
fighting
poverty and how his private company is finding jobs for many thought to
be
unemployable. Democratic consultant Emily Tisch Sussman and the Winston
Group’s
Kristen Soltis Anderson are also on hand to discuss the ongoing debate
over gun
control.
The
weekly television show, hosted by Scott Rasmussen, is carried
on 62 stations around the country. WKYT, in Lexington, Kentucky is the
newest
affiliate. Beginning this week, the CBS station will air the show at
9:30 on
Sunday morning. Find a station near you.
Support
for requiring a strict background check to buy a gun
remains high, but 51% of voters believe these checks will not reduce
the level
of violent crime in America.
Forty-one
percent (41%) think the federal government should
maintain a database with the names and addresses of all gun owners in
the
United States. Slightly more (47%) disagree and oppose a government
database of
all gun owners. Most Democrats strongly favor such a database, but most
Republicans and unaffiliated voters are opposed.
Forty-four
percent (44%) of all voters believe it is at least
somewhat likely that the government will try to confiscate all
privately owned
guns over the next generation or so.
This
distrust of government is a major factor in the immigration
debate as well.
Most
voters are willing to support immigration reform only if it
includes both border security and a way for some illegal immigrants to
remain
in the country. While
59% favor a
comprehensive reform plan, just 26% support a plan without tougher
border
control. Only 39% favor a plan that would secure the borders but does
not allow
illegal immigrants who are otherwise law-abiding to stay here. A big
problem
for reformers, though, is that most voters don’t trust the government
to really
try to secure the border.
Most
voters continue to like the health care they get but remain
more critical of the overall U.S. health care system.
However, the majority also still expects
the
system to get worse in the near future as President Obama’s health care
law
kicks in.
The
president continues to earn just over 50% job approval in the
daily Presidential Tracking Poll. But for the month of March, Obama's
total Job
Approval Rating fell another point from 53% in February to 52%. In
December, it
reached 56%, the highest level since May 2009. Prior to the election,
that
rating had remained in the narrow range of 44% to 49% for two years
straight.
Democrats
lead Republicans again this week on the Generic
Congressional Ballot.
Read
the rest of this article – with multiple
links – Rasmussen
|