A new Bloomberg National Poll shows President Obama's approval rating reaching a three-year high and public approval of Republicans reaching a three-year low. The same poll found that a plurality of Americans blame the congressional GOP, not Democrats, for "what's wrong in Washington."
And an interesting twist, the Bloomberg poll results aren't the worst polling results for Republicans this morning. That prize goes to a new USA Today/Pew Research Center Poll, which suggests Americans just aren't buying what Republicans are selling.
I put together this chart to highlight what's arguably the most important result in the survey. With a week to go before the sequestration deadline hits, GOP leaders are convinced they can win a public-relations fight with the White House because, conservatives believe, Americans will blame Obama for the dangerous sequester policy that Republicans championed.
This poll suggests the GOP isn't just wrong, its understanding of public attitudes is the exact opposite of reality. The public is prepared to hold Republicans responsible for this self-inflicted wound that will undermine the economy, the military, and public needs. The one thing the GOP is counting on -- avoiding blame at all costs -- is already failing miserably.
Indeed, looking ahead, voters were asked, "What should be the focus of steps to reduce the deficit?" A whopping 76% majority said there should be a combination of spending cuts and new revenue. Only 19% of the public -- fewer than one in five -- agrees with the Republicans cuts-only approach. Given the number of Americans who self-identify as members of the GOP, this suggests the Republican Party has failed to even persuade some of its own voters.
Wait, it gets even worse for Republicans (and better for Democrats).
On specific issues, the same poll found that Americans side with President Obama over the GOP on who has the better approach to reducing the deficit, who's right on reducing gun violence, who has the better plan to deal with immigration, and by a huge margin, who's better on the climate crisis.
What's the good news for Republicans in these new national polls? There is no good news for Republicans in these new national polls.
Why does this matter? A couple of reasons. First, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) routinely insist that they speak for "the American people" and know exactly what "the American people" want and expect. I suspect they'll keep repeating this silly talking point, but the only appropriate response to the argument is uproarious laughter. At this point, there is almost no overlap between what Americans want and what Republicans are offering -- and lying about public attitudes won't change that.
Second, fierce battles are taking shape in Washington right now -- not just on the sequester, but also on a range of key domestic policies -- and Republicans find themselves on the wrong side of the American mainstream on literally all of them. The smart move would be GOP leaders to recognize the direction of the prevailing winds and start to adapt, striking compromises with Democrats that both sides can live with.
The odds of Republicans making this smart move are roughly zero.
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Time for the president to stand for his principles and level with the American people about the destructive, anti-American agenda of the Republican Party. What has "compromise" and attempts to appease the GOP brought us? A roller-coaster of artificial deadlines and legislative guns to the head of the American people that have led to serious damage to our economy. No more hand-holding of the GOP. time to smack them in the face and state the obvious; that the GOP is only interested in obstruction and extremism, not healing our economy and governing America. - progressive
Boehner gave the game away in his WSJ op-ed. He has laid the groundwork for separating the TParty members from the rest of the caucus by calling the sequester cuts damaging to the national interest. He has a way out now. He has admitted taking the economy hostage but sees killing the hostage as not in the national interest. This was no accident or just poor writing.
This is beginning to look like just another game between the Harlem Globetrotters and the Washington Generals.
Need I remind you that, at the end of the week, BOTH teams get a paycheck?
I suspect the Fed just weighed in on the Sequester by raising the prospect of a cut back in buying Treasury issuance. Since nearly no one else is buying them, it suggests an increase in rates that Treasury would have to pay on newer issues and staggering losses to those who already hold them. It would also dampen enthusiasm for commodities as the carry cost increases. Add a droop in the DJIA and phones ring in DC and commanding voices of donors say "get real children".
So, there will be a deal. The Tea Party sorts will be marginalized and the beat goes on.
But the gop think they know better than everyone else , do they even have time to cut a deal at this point? they are on break after all
Once again their people are telling the gop they are a head by 10 points and romney will win by a land slide
That sound you hear? That shrieking howl, those lashing winds?
It's the Right Wing Freak-out breaking the sound barrier.
Take cover, 'cause it's gonna blow.
You ain't kidding . The foolhardy specimens that wander into these pages are cut from the same cloth the mantras are birthed , then given the divine credence of the willfully deaf .
The ability to ignore the silk shirted humility of these sturdy deniers of thought and the trains they ride on , can be found in all their 'glories' wandering around Reuters , Daily Beast , etc . The wall of sanity that cannot exist in peace with the garrulous belligerence may be welcomed with the indication to the TRMS menu that declares you shall ignore these worthies , henceforth .
sheesh
While national polls are interesting, they're largely irrelevant when talking about these issues. If foolish and reckless behavior will not prevent Republicans from getting re-elected (and may actually help), then that's what they'll do. There is no interest in doing what's best for the country, only in holding on to their offices.
Except that it did prevent Republicans from being elected. Romney lost and the Dems held the majority in the Senate. And the only reason the GOP didn't also lose the House is because they gerrymandered it.
To be fair, both sides have gerrymandered pretty badly. The Republicans do seem to be benefiting more at the moment, but I would be curious to see a historical overview of the popular vote vs. Congressional breakdown. It's possible we've benefited from it in the past so I'm cautious on pointing fingers only at the other side of the aisle.
Agreed that both sides do it, but that's not really my point. The fact is the GOP's foolish and reckless behavior HAS had electoral consequences, and those consequences would be far worse for them right now had they not been able to control re-districting after the 2010 census. It would behoove the GOP to get in touch with realities like the results of this poll, but they are either unable or unwilling to do so.
@Freddie-1717641
I think you're absolutely right about the lessening of consequences, but again I wonder if it simply benefits the incumbent when tides shift against them, regardless of party. Know what I mean?
Safe Districts allow their representatives to ignore mainstream opinions, regardless of party. Are the Republicans outside the mainstream at this moment in history? Yes. Are they keeping seats despite that because of gerrymandering? Yes. If it ever swings back the other way and Democrats find themselves outside the mainstream, will they gladly take advantage of Safe Districts to hold on to their seats?
That last question is the one that gives me pause in all this, because I suspect the answer is: Yes.
In California, where we un-gerrymandered legislative districts, the result is that we are killing the Republican party, which is now irrelevant to state government, since the Democrats have the necessary 2/3 majority in both houses to ignore the idiots.
Actually, as long as Boehner and McConnell define "the American people" as various lobbyists, teabaggers, and folks inside the FauxNews bubble, they ARE speaking for them...
Plus, there's a mix of good and bad news for the GOP in these polls...the bad: only 21% of Americans currently identify as Republicans...the good: 65% of Democrats believe reducing the deficit should be the top priority.
That number suggests that the GOP won the broader economic argument.
Re: #5
We all - 100% of us - realize that the deficit should be reduced and the debt needs to be paid down.
The questions are How? and When?
Contrary to what Morning Joe says (why do I watch?! I just end up yelling at him), the reason we have such a high deficit is because the revenue line on the chart fell off a cliff and the outlay line got steeper due to increased spending on mandated programs (unemployment, SNAP, medicaid, etc).
The best way to reduce the deficit - short term - is to lower unemployment (do whatever you have to do to get people back to work). This will get increase revenue and decrease spending for the mandated programs.
Then you look at underlying structural problems, like a ridiculous tax code and health care costs (Medicare, Medicaid but also the entire industry).
Regarding Social Security and Medicare, the baby-boomers are the "Pig in the Python". We (I am one) bloated up the K-12 education system, then the higher education system, then the work-force, now the SS & Medicare systems and every other "care for elderly" system. But things will eventually even out.
"Pig in the Python"- me likey!
Too bad the snake is so long; modern medicine will keep us inside, until we reach the 'exit'.
Re: #6.2
That expression is attributed to Landon Jones - on the wikipedia page.
^ a b Jones, Landon (1980), Great Expectations: America and the Baby Boom Generation, New York: Coward, McCann and Geoghegan
We knew there was going to be a problem 30 years ago and we didn't plan for it. Instead, that was about the time when wages stagnated so we couldn't save or could save less for our retirement.
I think that the push to reduce SS and Medicare spending is to hurry more people to the "exit". Sad but true.
Saying thangs like "We didn't plan for it" has the same provenance that forbids spending on infrastructure as an unconscionable debt burden on our cheeldren .
The debt burden we leave our cheeldren is called civilization .
Look up "Greenspan Commission." Thirty years ago, Congress and Reagan raised the payroll tax by a hefty amount over and above what was required for "pay as you go" for Social Security. That was to prepay and prepare for that pig (me: oink!)
Of course, Reagan used the extra payroll tax revenues to lower taxes on the wealthy and spend on the military rather than continue paying down the debt. Then that same Greenspan came along twenty years later and supported Bush43 in another round of tax cuts and military spending, because (he told us) it would have been a fiscal disaster if we'd paid off the debt. Everyone (and in particular the "impartial" Press) laughed at Gore's silly notion of a SS "lock box." Silly Al Gore.
So, please, don't say that "we didn't plan for it." There was a plan, and we Boomers have been supporting it for almost our entire working lives (or at least 90-something percent of us have.) It's just that when we to to the piggy bank, we're going to find that someone got there first, so we Boomers are going to have to do without the benefits we thought were guaranteed by The Plan that we paid into.
The GOP may have been successful in selling the idea that debt reduction should be a top priority in the abstract. It's similar to their ability to sell hatred of Obamacare (In the abstract), while it is embraced when the specifics are revealed.
I think that when it comes down to the nitty gritty, Americans will choose medicare, social security and infrastructure over debt reduction.
Just Turn The Damn Thing Off!
Yeah, Mitch, circle the wagons, batten down the hatches, seal off the wall, and then send someone like say Senator Custer over the hill to check on us middle classers who have been known to threaten a billionaire or two on recent occasion (Nov. 2012)!
I've begun to email the reticent routinely, and I'm pointing out the same information as the chart to them. They no likey my email! Join me - Mitch's office is the most fun! -Kevo
Re: #8
Dr. Seuss - Yertle the Turtle.
Yertle - the King of the Turtles - was brought down when Mack - the turtle at the bottom of the turtle-pile - - - - - - - burped. That's all it takes.
Actually, as others have pointed out, Mitch does sort of remind one of a turtle, doesn't he?
Oh yea though I walk through the tangled , soiled , web of deceit , I shall fear no revelation that can be denied ,
ahhh yuh caint beha man cuz yuh don't smoke
the same ziggerette az me
yuu caint get no
veritas roun heah
Yes, but what about Benghazi!
Someone needs to shoot off a post about Benghazi and pretend to be relevant!
LOL
LOL
well it seems the teapublicans still can not read polls and understand them. you think after getting a beating as they did cause they believe their polls.
One may view a beating as divine , as such
Beings protected products precious divinity sweet casuist™
Have at its foundation
Belief ~ and ~ Faith
Faith that despite unholy temptations to entertain and represent voters
The reality stick which only strikes their physical being
Beaten only in the temple of their soul
Belief the spiritual ship sails zon
Unmolested by forbidding facts swirly reason
I learned in kindergarten that it doesn't matter who started it, the responsible thing is to end it. Republicans are not looking very responsible right now.
In the NFL too !
I have predicted the Republicans will cave on the sequester. Republicans have reached a point of diminishing returns. Every time we have another "crisis" Republicans are angering more voters than the previous crisis. These repeated confrontations may stop primary challenges from the Tea Party, but they are not garnering votes from the rest of the voters. If these "crises" created by the Republicans continue into 2014, they will lose a lot of House seats. There is also the possibility that Dems in the Senate will easily win their elections and keep control of the Senate. Dems campaign message should be that Republicans are incapable of governing and if government does not work, it is due to the Republicans. They have engaged in slash and burn warfare since Obama was elected in 2008; the public is getting fed up with Congress and particularly, Republicans. I expect to see the Tea Party in Congress shrink even more in the next elections.
Rhetorical question incoming.... don't republicans know this is the digital information age? Politicians, especially this current crop of republicans can't seem to grasp the concept that what a public official says or does gets recorded in some way and retrieving that information is as simple as asking the question in Google. Those moments are recorded and stored. Anyone with access to a computer can retrieve it.
We know the republican stance on the sequester from last year. Go to a fund raiser and call 47% of Americans moochers and someone with a cell phone is going to record it. Go to a conservative rally and say the government is full of middle east extremist and someone is going to get that down. Run a marathon and lie about the time? Nope, gotcha!
They simply refuse to believe that, we the people, have access to more information stores than ever before. I guess I shouldn't be surprised by the party that hates science. Maybe they should change from elephants to ostriches.
I don't think the GOP cares, for one simple reason... Back in 2010, they gerrymandered several congressional districts in Repub-dominated states, therefore, they won't lose the House in 2014, and may get the Senate back. Why shoul they care what the majority of the American people think, if it doesn't have any electoral consequences for them? One can only hope the demographic changes ahead keep increasing for the Dems, and some states revert back to Dem control.
Not every gerrymandered Republican seat is so safe that they can ignore the polls. They are losing more than the Latino vote; you can include the loss of women voters and many young voters. Those latter groups are increasingly voting for Dems. If immigration reform fails to pass because of the Republicans, you can expect a surge in Latino voters being registered in a lot of Republican districts in the Southwest, Texas and Florida.
I say in 2014 there should be a creation of a new party, not democrats,republicans,or independents but the COMMON SENSE party! Lord knows, we need some common sense people in Washington and in congress running our government if we're ever going to
get this country back on the right track to recovery, which now may be for a very long time. This republican "tea party" is the most weirdest,strangest party i have ever seen,since i been able to vote.How in the world did these people got voted for in the first place is beyond belief.
One party goes freak, and you want to spread the blame to all.
it isn't that the repubs don't understand national surveys. The problem is that national surveys don't apply to them. The local surveys in their own districts is what is important, and that is what they mean when they talk about what the "American people" want.
There is no way that Boehner cares about national surveys until surveys in his own district show him picking the short straw. Then he'll change.
Only Fox polls keeps those good feelings coming...
Republican know they are to blame for this mess; they are nothing more than an bunch of cry baby nazis; that want to destroy, and rape our country; because they fell butt hurt by losing the election.
How about this! If the Sequesture goes through, Congress dose not get a raise, they voted themselves one, on April 1 and they have to take a 10% pay cut to help out with the budget. And all future Congressional raises will be tied to that of Social Security! Think things would get done then!
Ideology drives all...They really, truly, fear being ideologically "impure" more than they fear the damage to be wrought on the country, by this ham-handed sword of Damocles that they forged and foisted on all of us in their last hostage-taking attempt, hence the wrongheaded focus on "spin." The cooked-books "numbers" did not match up to empirically-driven reality in November, and the spin-dorkters on the right are just as wrong about the mood of the majority of voters as they can be. They will find out, to their sorrow, just how wrong they are. My hope is that people will stop sending them to congress.
We are talking about what, 80 to 100 Billion out of Trillions spent each year? This will do very little on either the deficits or the debt and a lot of people are panicking like it will end life as we know it. Obviously NOTHING will really be done on deficits and debt so lets not even do this (sequester). This is really laughable - it is like freaking out about $2 of a $100 you have in your "budget" (actually probably more like 50 cents).
The sequester will not go through or it will only be in effect a month or two. Any compromise they come up with will be peanuts, literally on this issue. What a waste of time.
I don't really look to assign "blame" if the sequester takes place. Overall, I think it is a good thing, as it seems to be about the ONLY way we are EVER going to cut the bloated military budget. Let the sequester take effect, and then pass a few laws to tinker around the edges.
I wish Obama was not so apparently eager to avoid the sequester.
LMAO. Sorry, but the Republicans are just cleaning off the excrement of the liberal media attacks from the last election. Enjoy your complacency while it lasts.
But Democrats are about to see a marketing like none in American history.
The Progressive Agenda, dead as a doornail since the 2010 elections, is still dead. Squawk'n but dead not resting!
I guess that is why a guy named HUSSEIN mopped the floor with the 2 lily white wall st GOP sweet hearts last election , and Harry Reid is still senate leader , huh Anel ?
SPLAT!!!!!