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Rasmussen...
What They Told Us:
Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Americans don’t much like the way things are going these days.
At week’s end, daily confidence as measured in the Rasmussen Consumer
and Investor Indexes had fallen to new lows for the year. The number of
adults nationwide who expect interest rates to go up over the next year
has risen again this month to a new high of 52%.
Only one-out-of-three workers (33%) nationwide expects to earn more
money a year from now, marking the lowest level of optimism in nearly
two years. The number of employees looking for a new employer (30%) has
reached its highest level in nearly two years.
At the same time, a majority of Likely U.S. Voters, for the first time,
supports an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan or
the creation of a timetable to bring them all home within a year. Just
18% believe the situation in that country will improve in the next six
months.
The fighting continues in another Muslim country, Libya, but while
officials in Washington consider possible U.S. military responses, 63%
of voters favor a hands-off approach.
Recent surveys have found that Americans worry the current turmoil in
the Arab world may drag the United States into another big war, but
most voters think terrorism on the home front is a bigger danger than
traditional wars.
The House Committee on Homeland Security held hearings this past week
to examine the threat of domestic terrorism, and a sizable number of
voters think the government is not paying enough attention to possible
Islamic terrorism in America. Sixty-four percent (64%) are now
concerned that people who have become U.S. citizens will attempt to
commit terrorist acts against the United States.
Islamic groups and others have protested the hearings, saying they are
likely to give rise to increased bigotry against Muslims in this
country. But right now only 17% of voters believe that most Muslims in
America are treated unfairly because of their religion and ethnicity.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) complain that American Muslims are not
speaking out enough against potential terrorist attacks in the United
States.
The nation’s porous borders are another national security concern.
While little is being said on Capitol Hill about immigration reform
these days, voters remain strongly convinced that border control should
come first.
Most voters also continue to favor strong sanctions on employers who
hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them. Voters
still feel strongly, too, that police should check the immigration
status of drivers during routine traffic stops, a practice Arizona
adopted into law last year but is now subject to a U.S. Justice
Department challenge in federal court.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former governor of
Arizona, is the Obama administration’s face on the immigration and
domestic security fronts. Perhaps not surprisingly, when you throw in
the uproar over TSA airport security pat-downs, too, she remains one of
the better-known - and most unpopular - members of President Obama’s
Cabinet.
Speaking of the president, a majority (61%) of voters still believe he
is more ideologically liberal than they are. But then a plurality (48%)
of U.S. voters classify themselves as fiscal conservatives, while just
14% say they’re fiscal liberals.
The president’s job approval ratings continue to stumble along in the
Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. As the week came to
a close, 46% of voters at least somewhat approved of the president’s
job performance, while 53% disapproved.
Maybe it’s good for the president that the American people don’t
directly set his salary. Americans tend to think teachers should get
paid more than those in several other professions including doctors,
military personnel and the president of the United States.
Most American Adults think how much money an individual is paid should
depend more on what they get done on the job rather than their
educational background or how long they’ve worked for a company. Union
workers or those with union members in their families are more
supportive of seniority than non-union members.
Public employee unions have been at the forefront of the national
political debate in recent weeks, thanks to budget-cutting moves by
Wisconsin’s new Republican governor that include severely curtailing
their collective bargaining rights. Polls have been all over the place
on what the public thinks about this dispute, but as Scott Rasmussen
explains in both an analysis and a video, such differences are fairly
common when new issues arise, and the best way to approach the subject
is to review all the data and learn from it.
Rasmussen Reports this past week asked Wisconsin voters about some of
the specifics in the contest between the governor and the unions.
Voters in the state, for example, remain strongly opposed to “weakening
collective bargaining rights” but are very supportive of substantial
changes in the collective bargaining process.
At the same time, a plurality (48%) of Wisconsin voters think voters
should have the right to approve or reject new pension plans agreed to
by government officials and union members if they’ll lead to increased
government spending. They are evenly divided as to whether approval
should be required for public employee pay raises that push spending
higher.
With a little legislative maneuvering, Wisconsin Republicans appear to
have won their budget battle for now, but similar fights are expected
in other states as they attempt to tackle their growing budget deficits.
Read the complete story with links at Rasmussen
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