President Obama is expected to lay out his long-term deficit-cutting plan in a speech to the nation tonight, but most voters feel the president and Republicans in Congress are unlikely to agree on major spending cuts before next year’s elections. They also aren't confident either side will come up with a serious plan to begin with.
The great American engine of democracy is beginning to build up a head of steam, and it remains the finest device created by man to organize collective human action.
A friend from out of town asked me what everyone in Los Angeles was saying about the budget crisis and the almost shutdown of the government. Did I know it would be settled? Were people as glued to their televisions as she was?
When Roxy Kurze posted on her Facebook page that her husband desperately needed a kidney transplant, her plea for help was answered. Fortunately, most Americans have never been confronted with this situation. But nearly half of Adults appear ready to respond.
Glenn Beck’s Fox News program averages roughly two million viewers a night, but new polling finds that one-in-three Americans don’t know who he is.
You probably have yet to see someone jump for joy when their jury duty notice arrives in the mail, but most Americans who have served as a juror in a court of law say it was a good or excellent experience. They are also confident their jury made the right decision.
Not much has changed in the dynamics over the past couple of months in early 2012 election polling. No matter which of 10 Republicans is matched against President Obama, the president earns between 42% and 49% of the vote. That same dynamic was found earlier this year and suggests the election is still shaping up as a referendum on the president. That’s typical when an incumbent runs for reelection.
Even as the political battle over Wisconsin’s recent state Supreme Court election continues, most voters favor the election of judges and think there should be term limits on how long someone can serve on the bench.
"My two brothers and I have run a successful service business for more than 20 years, which we run as a 'C' corporation.
Washington, D.C. is abuzz with Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s plan to cut $4 trillion in federal spending over the next decade, but voters throughout the country aren’t paying that much attention.
If you think that academia is not the exclusive playground of the academic left, consider the fate of UCLA epidemiologist James Enstrom.
America's tailspin toward the cultural abyss has gained speed with an ad featuring single-mother celebrity Bristol Palin. Bloggers unfriendly to her mother, conservative entrepreneur Sarah Palin, have bashed a charity for paying Bristol $262,500 to warn against teen pregnancy while doling a pitiful $35,000 to social organizations that actually deal with its problems.
Most Americans still expect interest rates to be higher a year from now. But they're less likely to say they are paying higher interest rates than they were a year ago, and fewer owe more money than they did back then.
Over the years, the daily tracking of the Rasmussen Consumer Index has shown that a single factor generally tends to drive consumer confidence. In the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks, national security was the primary factor moving consumer confidence. At other times, it has been things like job creation or gas prices.
Confidence in America's conduct of the war on terror has fallen to its lowest level in four-and-a-half years.
Republicans hold a six-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending April 10, 2011.
A majority of voters still favor repeal of the health care law, but support for repeal has fallen to its lowest level since October. Confidence that the law will be repealed is down to its lowest point since the first of the year.
Just under half of voters understand that making major cuts in government spending over the long haul will require substantial changes in three of the most politically sensitive areas of the federal budget.
One of the things that fascinate me about American politics is how the voices of the voters as registered in elections and polls are transformed into changes in public policy. It's a rough-and-ready process, with plenty of trial and error. But for all its imperfections, the political market seems to work.
Confidence in the stability of the U.S. banking system is up a bit this month but still remains at discouraging levels.
