Thursday is the day things tend to come to a boil on Capitol Hill. Members of Congress have been in town for three or four days; they're planning their exits on Friday to meet other commitments; they've had a chance to talk and meet with one another and sample the moods of their colleagues.
Fed head Ben Bernanke went before Congress this week with his midyear update on monetary policy and the economy.
Confidence in the $787-billion economic stimulus plan proposed by President Obama and passed by Congress in February continues to fall.
The daily Rasmussen Reports Prediction Challenge for Wednesday focuses on Presidential press conferences.
Just 31% of likely voters now believe the United States is heading in the right direction, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Down one point over the past week, it’s the lowest level found on the question since mid-February.
The health care reform legislation working its way through Congress has lost support over the past month. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 44% of U.S. voters are at least somewhat in favor of the reform effort while 53% are at least somewhat opposed.
The president is "not familiar" with the bill. No one can explain how it will work yet, as Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., told a contentious town meeting. There are various plans, and negotiations are still in the early stages.
Only 20% of U.S. voters now say health care reform is the most important of the four budget priorities President Obama laid out early in his presidency, down four points from the end of May.
I was listening to National Public Radio's morning "news" Monday on the way to work, during which the newsperson read the apparently "factual" statement that the United States is the only developed country that does not provide "comprehensive" health care coverage.
Forty-six percent (46%) of Americans say they still consider network television news programs a more reliable source of news than the Internet.
Support for Republican congressional candidates has reached its highest level in over two years as the GOP lengthens its lead over Democrats in the latest edition of the Generic Ballot.
Six percent (6%) of American workers expect to have a new employer within a year. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 17% expect to work for the same company for more than a year, but less than five. A plurality, 44% of workers, expect to have the same employer for more than five years.
Sports fans love to compare players from different eras of a sport, especially baseball fans.
All the Walter wannabes have a ways to go to match the dean of television newscasters who died last Friday. Americans like longtime CBS newscaster Walter Cronkite much more than the current crew of network anchors, perhaps because they see him as less ideologically liberal.
Sacramento is so desperate to erase the state budget's $26.3 billion shortfall that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Democratic Legislature seem poised to end decades of prohibition so that they can tap new revenue from a widely occurring natural resource -- one dear to many Californians and known for its unmistakable aroma.
The daily Rasmussen Reports Prediction Challenge for Tuesday focuses on the environment.
"Spoiled: Organic and Local Is So 2008," read the headline in Mother Jones magazine. You can imagine the snark that followed.
Buzz Aldrin, one of the three U.S. astronauts who first walked on the moon in 1969, says America’s next goal should be sending a manned mission to Mars, but just 29% of Americans agree.
The daily Rasmussen Reports Prediction Challenge for Monday focuses on the nation's current economic crisis.
Fifty-six percent (56%) of Texas voters rate the U.S. economy as poor, and nearly as many (51%) say it’s getting worse.
