As the dispute over Governor Scott Walker’s budget cutting proposals continues, Wisconsin voters remain strongly opposed to “weakening collective bargaining rights” but are very supportive of substantial changes in the collective bargaining process.
“Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Less than two months after President John F. Kennedy uttered these famous words in his inaugural address, he created the Peace Corps by executive order. Fifty years later, most Americans continue to have a favorable opinion of the government-run volunteer program.
A majority of voters, for the first time, support an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan or the creation of a timetable to bring them all home within a year.
President Obama once famously noted that “elections have consequences.” Legislators in Washington, D.C. and Madison, Wisconsin can certainly attest to the truth of that statement. Republican gains have translated into major budget battles involving issues and programs that Democrats have held dear for years.
Fewer than half the nation’s voters believe the congressional agenda of either major party is in the political mainstream.
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker won his job last November with 52% of the vote, but his popularity has slipped since then.
As Governor Scott Walker and public employee unions battle in the court of public opinion, Wisconsin voters continue to see spending cuts as the proper path to solving the state’s budgetary woes.
Most Wisconsin voters oppose efforts to weaken collective bargaining rights for union workers but a plurality are supportive of significant pay cuts for state workers. Governor Scott Walker is struggling in the court of public opinion, but how badly he is struggling depends upon how the issue is presented. There is also an interesting gap between the views of private and public sector union families.
When tracking President Obama’s job approval on a daily basis, people sometimes get so caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations that they miss the bigger picture. To look at the longer-term trends, Rasmussen Reports compiles the numbers on a full-month basis, and the results can be seen in the graphics below.
Looking back, a slight majority of Likely Voters believe the United States should never have gotten involved in Iraq in the first place. They also believe the mission there was more of a failure than a success.
President Obama’s agenda includes an emphasis on education and utilizing clean energy, but most voters don’t know the Cabinet members the president is depending on to lead policy in these areas.
A plurality of voters fears that the growing unrest in the Arab world will have a negative impact on the fragile political situation in Iraq, and most think it is unlikely that all U.S. troops will be out of that country by the end of the year as planned.
Congress is stalemated as Democrats fight $57 billion in spending cuts Republicans want to make in the federal budget for 2011, but most voters continue to believe that even the proposed GOP cuts won’t make a significant dent in the deficit.
As Republicans and Democrats in Congress haggle over the budget, most voters would rather have a partial shutdown of the federal government than keep its spending at current levels.
Most voters still want to see the national health care law repealed, and confidence that repeal will actually happen is on the upswing. Belief that repeal will be good for the economy, however, has fallen to its lowest level ever.
Wisconsin and Libya. Angry protesters are in the streets. Here at home they’re exercising their democratic rights in a budget battle; over there, they’re being shot down for seeking democratic rights in real battles.
Voters still are inclined to think President Obama can do a better job when it comes to the economy.
Americans continue to believe strongly that being a teacher is an essential job, but a plurality thinks it’s a bad thing that most teachers are unionized.
Egypt has long been the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, but despite its apparent turn toward democracy and similar ongoing moves in neighboring countries, most Americans want to end that aid to all Arab nations in the Middle East. Just over half favor continuing foreign aid to the number one recipient, Israel.
With President Obama maintaining a relatively low profile as political unrest spreads through the Arab world, the number of voters who rate his handling of national security issues as poor has hit its highest level since the beginning of December.
