Congress appears likely to refuse funding again for President Trump's border wall, but one-in-five voters are willing to dig into their own pockets to privately fund the barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border.
President Trump warned that a partial government shutdown is looming following a heated meeting with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer earlier this week in which the two parties failed to come to an agreement over spending for a border wall. Voters are getting more enthusiastic about building the wall, but they’re still not willing to risk a shutdown over it.
President Ronald Reagan said in his first inaugural address in 1981 that “government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem,” and voters still agree.
Several prominent Democrats trying to break out of the pack of potential 2020 presidential hopefuls are proposing new large-scale government spending programs. But voters aren’t big on these income transfer programs, and few think they will reduce the level of poverty.
Most voters continue to believe the government has too much power over the individual citizen.
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, one of many Democrats with an eye on their party’s 2020 presidential nomination, tweeted last week that America’s future is female and “intersectional” (focused on overlapping areas of discrimination). But voters insist gender doesn’t drive how they vote.
The liberal media which excoriated George H.W. Bush when he was president now proclaims its love for him following his death last week. Even most Democrats, it seems, now look favorably on the 41st president.
Most voters think the new trade deal with Canada and Mexico will pass Congress, and they’re slightly more confident these days that it will be better for the United States than the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.
Hope breeds eternal in the hearts of Democrats, but other voters see little chance of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation trapping President Trump.
Most voters think President Trump is likely to win again in 2020, but Democrats are entering the upcoming presidential election more enthusiastically than other voters are.
Some have estimated that up to 40 prominent Democrats will enter the race for their party’s 2020 presidential nomination. Even Democratic voters aren’t thrilled by that prospect.
New York is considering a proposal that would require the government to check the social media posts going back three years and the internet searches for the past year of all gun license applicants to look for “any good cause for the denial of a license,” and voters are intrigued by the idea.
As Republican control of the House comes to an end, even voters in their own party have little faith their congressional representatives will take advantage of these final weeks in the lame-duck session.
As the lame duck Congress wrestles with the level of federal spending, most voters agree a government shutdown is bad economic medicine, but they also don’t think higher spending is the answer. Very few say they’ve actually been hurt by shutdowns in the past.
The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against President Trump’s block on granting asylum to the migrants heading toward the U.S.-Mexico border. While voters overall have a slightly more favorable opinion of the ACLU these days, Republicans and Democrats still remain sharply divided on how they view the group.
Voters agree the migrant caravans approaching the U.S. southern border are a danger to the country and should be stopped at least temporarily.
Most voters think there are too many Americans incarcerated, but they’re less convinced that the federal government needs to loosen mandatory minimum sentences -- a proposal that's advancing in the U.S. Congress.
The 2018 midterm elections have prompted more discussions about voter fraud, with multiple states purging voter rolls, ongoing recounts and new voter identification laws going into effect. But while very few say they’ve been turned away from the polls, they’re more torn over whether that’s the biggest problem.
Recent accidentally released court filings indicate that the Department of Justice has filed criminal charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and is preparing to indict, something nearly half of Americans are likely happy to hear.
Voters aren’t sure Americans grasp the fundamentals of their government, but they seem to have a general understanding of how impeachment works.
