The Senate is scheduled to vote today on an $838-billion economic stimulus plan, but 58% of U.S. voters say most members of Congress will not understand what is in the plan before they vote on it.
Are Republicans winning the public relations battle over spending in the $800-billion-plus economic stimulus package? Democrats and Republicans are nearly even in this week's edition of the Generic Congressional Ballot.
Back in May 2000, Harry Markopolos, a Massachusetts fraud investigator, provided detailed evidence to the Securities and Exchange Commission that financier Bernard Madoff was a fraud. Eight years later, the SEC figured that out -- albeit after Madoff told federal authorities he had defrauded investors of up to $50 billion.
Barack Obama never guaranteed he would end partisan rancor in Washington. He said he'd try.
Forty-two percent (42%) of Americans say they have avoided eating peanut butter since the nationwide salmonella outbreak started making headlines in mid-January.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of American adults say political donors get more than their money back in terms of favors from members of Congress.
Fifty-nine percent (59%) of American adults believe that when members of Congress meet with regulators and other government officials, they do so to help their friends and hurt their political opponents. In a solid display of agreement across party lines, a majority of Democrats, Republicans and those unaffiliated with either major party share this view.
Seventy-three percent (73%) of voters now say buying a home is still the best investment most families can make, despite the continued instability of the U.S. housing market.
With the Senate poised to vote Tuesday on an $827-billion version of the economic recovery plan, 62% of U.S. voters want the plan to include more tax cuts and less government spending.
The popularity of newly elected President Barack Obama combined with the willingness of most voters to give him the benefit of the doubt is a powerful political force working in favor of the economic rescue plan now being debated on Capitol Hill.
Forty-eight percent (48%) of U.S. voters say that, generally speaking, increased government spending is bad for the economy.
This is not going to be a column that dumps on the misguided and clearly troubled Nadya Suleman -- the 33-year-old unemployed single Whittier mother of six who gave birth to octuplets last month. Of course, a single mother of six has absolutely no business having more children.
President Obama last Thursday night stated his belief in the need for urgent action on the economic recovery bill working its way through Congress. “If we do not move swiftly … an economy that is already in crisis will be faced with catastrophe,” he declared. Obama repeated that sentiment in his nationwide radio address on Saturday.
President Obama is quickly learning that being president is harder than just talking about it.
How do you explain it when jobs plunge and stocks surge? That's what happened Friday, as the January employment report revealed a disastrous 598,000 drop in payrolls. Actually, the job loss was 664,000, if you count downward revisions to the prior two months. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate moved up from 7.2 percent to 7.6 percent. So there's no sugar coating it: It was a terrible report.
Tuesday, Feb. 3, was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day for Barack Obama.
Sixty-four percent (64%) of Illinois voters say that former Governor Rod Blagojevich received a fair impeachment trial in the Illinois Senate. A Rasmussen Reports telephone survey found that just 23% disagree and 13% are not sure.
Voters are evenly divided over whether Congress should attempt to fix the country’s troubled housing market before it takes any other action to help the economy.
Ruth Bader Ginsburg is small in stature, but she has very big shoulders. Alongside a generation of women lawyers, I stand on them, with gratitude and pride. The news that the only woman on the United States Supreme Court has been hospitalized for surgery for pancreatic cancer brings an opportune moment to say thank you.
More bad news for the media. Fifty-four percent (54%) of U.S. voters say the news media make global warming appear worse than it really is. Only 21% say the media present an accurate picture, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
