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Rasmussen...
What
They
Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls
Saturday,
June 23, 2012
Next week
promises to be a big one. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on
the
constitutionality of President Obama’s national health care law and
Arizona’s
law cracking down on illegal immigrants. If voters had their way, the
health
care law would be overturned and the state law upheld, but whatever the
high
court rules, expect political fireworks.
Voter
opinions of the Supreme Court usually change little, but those ratings
jumped
earlier this year when questions by the justices at a court hearing
suggested
they might overturn the health care law.
Right now, just over one-third (36%)
have a positive view of the Supreme
Court. We’ll be checking those favorables again after the court hands
down its
decisions.
Fifty-two
percent (52%) of Likely U.S. Voters would like to see the Supreme Court
overturn the health care law. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree and
want to
see the high court uphold the law’s legality instead.
Surveys
have consistently shown that one reason voters oppose the health care
law is
because they believe it will further damage the economy, and most
Americans
already believe the economy will be weaker or unchanged in a year’s
time. Fewer
than half expect the economy to be stronger even five years from now.
Sixty-three
percent (63%) of consumers and 59% of investors say the United States
is still
in a recession.
Voters
remain closely divided over the government’s role in responding to the
troubled
economy, but cutting spending remains a favored option. Most don’t
think it’s
necessary for the United States to spend three times as much on
national
security as any other nation.
Short-term
confidence among homeowners about the future of their homes’ values is
at its
highest level in two years, and most now expect that value to increase
in five
year’s time. But at the same time those who think their home is now
worth less
than what they still owe on it ties an all-time high at 42%.
For the
second survey in a row, fewer than half of U.S. homeowners (48%)
believe their
home is worth more now than when they bought it. That’s just below
April’s
finding of 49%, the first time that figure dipped below 50% in over two
years
of regular surveying. By
comparison, in
October 2011, 62% reported that their home was worth more than what
they paid
for it. Eighty percent (80%) said that in 2008.
Fifty-seven
percent (57%) believe that it will take more than another three years
for the
housing market to fully recover from the downturn that occurred in
2008.
Fifteen percent (15%) predict a recovery in three years, while 10% say
it will
take one or two years more. These findings are the most pessimistic
assessment
of the housing market since regular tracking began in early 2009.
Belief that
interest rates will be higher a year from now is down from the first of
the
year and is at its lowest level since last December. But, that said,
43% of
Americans believe interest rates will be higher this time next year,
while just
six percent (6%) think they will be lower.
At the
place they work, most Americans aren’t convinced that the hardest
workers get
the highest pay. In fact, just 27% believe that people who work harder
generally make more money.
No wonder
that just 30% of voters say the country is heading in the right
direction.
Sixty-four percent (64%) think the country is heading down the wrong
track.
A plurality
(45%) of voters say America’s best days are in the past. Just 16%
believe
today’s children will be better off than their parents.
Speaking of
children, most voters don’t think the government is aggressive enough
in
deporting illegal immigrants but agree with the president’s decision to
allow
young people brought here illegally who meet certain criteria to avoid
deportation.
On the good
news side, the surge in gas prices across the country appears to be
over, with
far fewer Americans predicting $4 or even $5 a gallon prices at the
pump.
There’s
been a sharp drop in the number who give the president positive marks
for his
handling of the economy, Scott Rasmussen points out in a new radio
update, and
that’s never good in an election year.
Rasmussen
Reports is tracking the race between the president and likely
Republican
nominee Mitt Romney on a daily basis, and this is the 14th straight day
that
Romney has held a slight lead. Over the past 24 days, the president has
been in
the lead just one time.
Obama holds
a five-point lead over Romney in the swing state of New Hampshire.
Montana
remains in the Romney column again this month.
Florida
Senator Marco Rubio’s name recognition is on the rise with increasing
mention
of him as a possible running mate for Romney. His favorables are up
nationally,
especially among independent voters. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker,
Ohio
Senator Rob Portman, New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez and Nevada
Governor
Brian Sandoval have a long way to go to get better known to voters
around the
country.
But as
Scott Rasmussen explains in his latest syndicated column, “More
important than
the process of selecting the nominee will be the way the choice is
rolled out
to the public. … More than likely, most Americans will learn all they
know
about the new name on the ticket during the week the candidate is
introduced.”
Republicans
continue to hold a small lever over Democrats on the Generic
Congressional
Ballot. But 57% of voters think most members of Congress get reelected
because
election rules are rigged to benefit incumbents.
That’s how
the Political Class stays in power and maintains the status quo,
standing in
the way of real economic change, Scott Rasmussen argues in his latest
book, The
People’s Money: How the American People Will Balance the Budget and
Eliminate
the Federal Debt. Voters, he says, are ready to support the kind of
long-term
thoughtful changes needed to balance the budget and eliminate the
federal debt.
Read the
rest of the article at Rasmussen
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