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Rasmussen
What They Told
Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Generic Congressional Ballot: Republicans 40%, Democrats 39%
27% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction
22% Consumers Rate Economy Good or Excellent
Get out of my face: That’s the message most voters still have for the
federal government six years into the presidency of the man who hoped
to make us all believers in big government.
Sixty percent (60%) of Americans believe instead that the federal
government plays too big a role in the lives of average Americans.
Of course, it doesn't help that voters by a two-to-one margin consider
the federal government today a threat to individual liberty rather than
a protector. Only 19% trust the feds to do the right thing most or
nearly all the time.
Case in point: We’ve spent countless millions on the war on drugs over
the past several decades, and an overwhelming majority of Americans
still believe we’re losing.
Sixty-three percent (63%) of voters prefer a smaller government with
fewer services and lower taxes over a more active one with higher
taxes. Support for smaller government has run in the low to mid-60s in
most regular surveys since 2006.
Attitudes toward the president’s chief legislative achievement, the law
that makes the government the major player in health care, remain
mostly negative.
Not that the government doesn’t keep trying. Officials who want to
change habits they consider bad for the public often try to use the tax
code as a way to discourage consumption, and now a proposal has been
made to tax sugar to make us use less of it. Like most so-called "sin
taxes," this one doesn't go down well with Americans.
On the other hand, what voters want is often ignored. For example, a
sizable number of Americans know a second language and think it’s an
important skill to have in today’s world, but they still don’t think
it’s as important as encouraging immigrants in this country to speak
English. Thirty-one states have made English their official language,
and five more are hoping to join the club this year. But the federal
government resists taking that step, even though Americans strongly
believe English should be the nation's officially recognized language.
Most Americans also have said for years that government workers don’t
work as hard as those in the private sector but make more money...
Read the rest of the article with links at Rasmussen
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