Caution! Too much government control and spending is not what Americans want.
There has been a lot of noise recently from critics of the Republican Party, saying the Party has no clear message, or that it’s not in touch with what voters want. But our latest NBC/WSJ poll* suggests that in fact Republicans are in sync with the public when they express fears that Obama and Democrats in Congress are overreaching and spending too much.
The public clearly expresses its disapproval of the recent creation of Government Motors. By 56% to 35% Americans tell us they oppose the decision President Obama made to provide financial aid to GM. And, a majority (55%) say the federal government owning 60% of the company is the “wrong approach because it sets a bad example of the government getting too involved in the management of private companies, which goes against free market principles.”
But it’s not the GM situation alone that has people worried. This poll shows the public is concerned about the overreach of government in general. Seven-in-ten (69%) Americans say they are concerned about the federal government taking a greater role in GM, limiting levels of executive compensation, and the role it would play in a new health care system, with almost half (49%) saying they are “very concerned.”
If you’re wondering whether there’s the usual partisan division on this point, sure, Republicans express the most concern (88%), but 73% of Independents express anxiety, and even a majority of Democrats and President Obama’s core supporters say they are concerned (53% and 50% respectively).
There is also real concern the government may be spending too much. Just about one-third (35%) say the President and Congress should “worry more about boosting the economy even if it may mean larger deficits now and in the future” compared to 58% who say they should “worry more about keeping the deficit down even if it may mean it will take longer for the economy to recover.” This is an especially powerful result when you consider that most Americans (54%) still consider the economy and jobs to be the most important issue that needs to be addressed.
This compelling data suggests Republicans should keep driving their point home, cautioning against too much Uncle Sam in our lives, and offering alternative solutions for Americans.
*National survey of 1,008 adults conducted June 12-14, 2009
(Public Opinion Strategies partners with Peter D. Hart Research Associates to conduct the NBC/WSJ polls. Neither Peter D. Hart Research Associates nor NBC/WSJ are responsible for these conclusions.)
Results of the latest NBC-Wall Street Journal survey conducted by Bill McInturff of Public Opinion Strategies and Peter Hart of Hart Research Associates are available. The national survey was conducted June 12 – 15, 2009 among 1,008 adults.
The Hill quoted Nicole McCleskey in an article about the rising popularity of Republican Congressional candidates in Western states due to recent heavy government spending.
“Western voters are quite independent, and they are looking for greater balance in government. There’s a rather serious concern over policy direction in the Obama administration,” said Nicole McCleskey, a Western polling expert with the GOP firm Public Opinion Strategies.
“There’s an approach to government that is not a hallmark of Western states’ ideologies, that government should not play a terribly active role in our lives,” McCleskey added. “I think Western voters bristle at the notion that government knows best.”
LA Times mentions the Wall Street Journal poll to reinforce the idea that Americans are starting to become more skeptical of the current administration’s policies.
Most Americans also said the president has taken on a wide array of issues because he faces so many problems, according to the Journal-NBC poll, with just 37% saying he has taken on too many issues.
The surveys suggest concern about the direction that some of Obama’s policies could be taking the nation.
Nearly seven in 10 surveyed by pollsters Peter Hart and Bill McInturff for the Journal and NBC voiced concern about federal intervention in the economy, including the president’s decision to take a majority stake in the ownership of General Motors Corp.
NBC Dallas Fort-Worth quoted Bill and Peter Hart in a similar article about the public’s concern with the growing deficit.
And looking ahead to the items Obama wants to tackle — like reforming health care and curbing greenhouse gases — Hart observes that the bar has been raised.
“There is no more smooth sailing for the administration. They are going to have to navigate in pretty choppy waters.”
McInturff agrees, although he adds that the president’s continued personal popularity gives him “the latitude to ask for major action and major change.”
In an article about presidential popularity and the national debt, Newsweek mentioned Bill McInturff’s work with the Peter G. Peterson foundation.
Research by Bill McInturff and Peter Hart cited by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation puts the matter in even more telling perspective: 66 percent of registered voters say the deficit and debt pose a “very big threat to our country and its future,” more than twice as many as say global warming does.
RemoteScan.com linked to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation press release about the recent POS survey.
Knoxnews.com mentions the recent poll conducted for state Sen. Tim Burchett in Tennessee, who plans to run as the Republican candidate for Knox County Mayor in 2010.
The poll of 500 likely Republican primary voters done by Public Opinion Strategies of Washington, D.C., on Monday and Tuesday nights showed that 53 percent of participants likely or definitely would vote for Burchett, 26 percent for Hutchison, and 3 percent for Lewis Cosby, an accountant who’s said he’s running. The remaining participants, or 19 percent, were undecided in the poll.
With a third of the electorate, the suburbs of northern Virginia outside Washington — where Mr. McDonnell grew up before moving to Virginia Beach — have been a killing field for GOP candidates. “To win, a Republican needs about 42%, 43% in northern Virginia,” says Glen Bolger, Mr. McDonnell’s pollster. Presidential candidate John McCain in 2008, Sen. George Allen in 2006, and the Republican gubernatorial candidate in 2005, Jerry Kilgore, each got less than 40%. They all lost.
For months voters’ perception of the Republican Party has been in the doldrums, but new data out from Rasmussen Reports suggests the GOP may be coming back into favor with the public.
The data recently released from Rasmussen Reports shows Republicans hold an advantage over Democrats as the party voters most trust to handle on six out of ten issues tested. This fact alone is good news, but most importantly, on the key issue of the economy, for the first time in two years of tracking, Republicans are viewed as the party to trust by more voters (45%) than the Democrats (39%).
Some of you may be asking “what gives?” Well, for one thing this survey was conducted right after the news that GM would go into bankruptcy and the government would become the major shareholder of the company so that could have had some impact on these results. But, we’ve also seen data over the last few months that suggests voters are not convinced Obama’s economic initiatives are going to fix the economy.
Most recently, a survey conducted in late May by Gallup noted that only 45% of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of federal spending (51% disapprove), and a similar percentage (46%) approve of his handling of the federal budget deficit.
In the April NBC/WSJ* poll a majority of Americans (52%) said President Obama and his administration have been taking on too many other issues instead of having a “clear and sharp focus on the economy” (43%). And, even more concerning for Obama and his Party, we measured a drop in support for the economic stimulus legislation. In February, 44% said the stimulus was a good idea compared to 36% who said it was a bad idea. By April that measure was basically break-even (38% good idea/39% bad idea), and among Independents had dropped from a net five point “good idea” score to a 17 point net “bad idea” score.
Even in March just 31% of Americans said the stimulus package would help the economy a “great deal” or “quite a bit” over the next year, and by a more than two-to-one margin the public told us they were more concerned the federal government would “spend too much money trying to boost the economy and as a result will drive up the federal budget deficit” (61%) than that the government would spend too little and the recession would last longer (29%).
So, given the continued concern the public has expressed, and now the news that we (taxpayers) are now the owners of GM’s debt, it’s perhaps no surprise that voters are beginning to take a renewed look at the Republican Party. Republicans should take note of this shift in public opinion and step up their efforts to communicate their plans for re-building the economy as voters seem willing to listen and re-consider their options. This could be the beginning of a Republican resurgence – and what better place to start than on the most important issue facing the country today.
*NBC/WSJ surveys are conducted by Public Opinion Strategies together with Peter D. Hart Research Associates. Neither Peter D. Hart Research Associates nor NBC/WSJ are responsible for these conclusions.
