[Doug64]

A little late this week, I've been busy and am going to get busier.

President Obama, in his State of the Union address last Tuesday night, called his plans for targeted new spending in areas like education, transportation and technology “investment,” but his speech did little to sell the idea to voters.

Rasmussen Reports asked voters the same three questions about the president’s economic proposals on the two nights prior to the speech and then again on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. On the first two nights, 39% supported the proposals. On the next two nights, support was 41%. Fifty percent (50%) now oppose the federal government spending more money in areas like education, transportation and technological innovation, up from 45% in the previous survey.

The bottom line is that most voters, as they have in surveys for years now, continue to feel that cutting taxes and reducing government spending are best for the economy.

The need for deficit reduction also was a key part of the State of the Union speech, but few voters (22%) expect the president to hit his goal of cutting the deficit in half by the end of his first term.

After all, despite talk from congressional Republicans, most voters (54%) still think Congress is unlikely to significantly reduce government spending over the next year.

The new Congress, even with a Republican majority in the House, has a ways to go to convince voters it's not just as bad as the one that ended in December. Just 10% rate the new Congress’ performance as good or excellent. Forty-eight percent (48%) say the legislators are doing a poor job. GOP voters remain the biggest critics, as Scott notes in a video analysis.

Following the House's recent repeal of the national health care law, sending the issue on to the Senate, most voters continue to favor repeal, but support has fallen to its lowest level since late October. Fewer voters also now believe the law will force them to change their existing health insurance coverage.

Republicans still hold a five-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot – 44% to 39%, but it’s their smallest lead since the first week of December.

The president also argued strongly in his State of the Union speech for a bipartisan effort to create jobs, but most Americans think the best thing government can do is get out of the way. Sixty percent (60%) of Adults think decisions made by U.S. business leaders to help their own businesses grow will do more to help create jobs in America than decisions made by government officials.

The overwhelming majority of Americans continue to know someone who is out of work and looking for a job, but the number who believe unemployment will be higher one year from now is at its lowest level in over a year. Confidence in the current job market also has reached a recent high.

As the end of the month approaches, the Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes are up very slightly from the first of the year.

It was a tie game, by the way, when we asked voters which they were more interested in watching – the president’s State of the Union speech or the upcoming Super Bowl.

Obama’s job approval ratings have been on the rise in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, and now voters show less negativity toward both his leadership abilities and style.

Also, the number of voters who blame the president's policies for the country's continuing economic problems versus the recession that began under his predecessor George W. Bush is at its lowest level since early October 2009.

So how’s the president’s 2012 opposition shaping up these days?

History tells us that primary polls are all about name recognition at this early stage, and right now the best-known Republican hopefuls are running ahead among likely party primary voters. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney leads the pack with the support of 24%. Ex-Alaska Governor Sarah Palin runs second with 19%, closely followed by Mike Huckabee with 17%.

While Palin remains a top favorite of Republican voters, she’s also the front-runner they least want to see get the GOP’s 2012 presidential nomination. One-in-three likely primary voters (33%), in fact, feel that way.

So what if Romney, Palin, Huckabee and Newt Gingrich decide not to run for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 or their campaigns falter in the early going? Who will the GOP turn to? Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani emerges as the clear leader among a group of eight other prominent Republicans whose names have been mentioned as possible presidential candidates, with Tim Pawlenty, who recently stepped down as governor of Minnesota, in second place.

Speaking of governors, more and more states are facing serious budget shortfalls, but most voters nationwide (53%) continue to oppose federal bailout funding for these states.

States are currently not allowed by law to file for bankruptcy, but Gingrich, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush and others have argued that bankruptcy might be the least painful alternative for taxpayers in heavily debt-ridden states like California, Illinois and New York. Voters aren't thrilled with the idea, but they like it better than higher taxes. They’re even more supportive if told government employees might have their pensions reduced in the process.

In other surveys last week:

-- Only 29% of voters say the country is heading in the right direction, consistent with findings since November.

-- Jared Loughner, the Arizona man accused of shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killing six others, has pleaded not guilty to murder, but most Americans (56%) believe he should receive the death penalty if convicted.

-- What did Americans do in the past week? Sixty-eight percent (68%) read a book. Nearly the same number (67%) played a sport or did some kind of physical exercise. Forty-nine percent (49%) attended a religious service. And, of course, they did a lot more.

-- Americans are no more inclined to buy a new or used car now than they were a year ago, but among those who are in the auto market Ford comes out just ahead of General Motors and Chrysler.

-- Despite renewed concerns about the price of gas, most Americans still aren’t likely to buy an electric car in the next 10 years.

-- Being vice president has generally been a thankless but not too demanding job. Joe Biden, unlike his predecessor Dick Cheney, seems to be following this more traditional model, and voters are viewing him slightly more favorably these days.

-- Burger battle. In a showdown among the top three fast-food hamburger chains, Americans prefer Wendy’s over McDonald’s and Burger King.

[Doug64]

This week's polls, and no surprise the first ones focus on Egypt and US foreign policy. Interesting is the high number that would like to see us pull out of Japan and Western Europe, and IMHO how unlikely that is thanks to the likely consequences.

The drama on the streets of Cairo has many Americans thinking about national security and the role our country plays in the world these days.

Most expect the unrest in Egypt to spread to other Middle Eastern countries and think that will be bad for the United States. But a sizable majority (70%) also believe the United States should stay out of Egypt’s current problems.

Voters give mixed marks to President Obama’s response to the crisis in Egypt, although the survey was taken prior to news reports that the White House is actively involved in efforts to change the government there. Getting the United Nations involved would just make things worse, however, as far as many are concerned.

Closer to home, 81% of voters think it is at least somewhat likely that the political crisis in Egypt will significantly increase the cost of gasoline, with 46% who say it is Very Likely.

While Egypt has been ruled without free elections for 30 years by President Hosni Mubarak, it also has been America’s – and Israel’s – strongest ally in the Middle East, and most Americans appear to recognize the need for a reality-based U.S. foreign policy. Sixty percent (60%) agree that it is more important for the United States to be allies with any country that best protects our own national security than it is to be allies only with countries that have freely elected governments.

Most voters (53%) believe America’s military strategy should focus on defending the United States and its interests, but a sizable number think the strategy should concentrate on keeping the world peaceful instead. Either way, voters overwhelmingly see economic challenges as a much bigger threat to the United States than challenges on the military front.

Voters are fairly evenly divided as to whether the federal government spends too much or too little on national defense, but most also appear to dramatically underestimate how much is actually spent. As discussion of cutting the defense budget grows in Congress, a plurality of voters think the United States should remove its troops from Western Europe and Japan, but most think we should keep our forces in South Korea.

Regardless of the cost estimates or where they’re stationed, the U.S. military is seen as the most powerful in the world by 65% of voters.

There's little change in the number of voters who think the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, but the number who feel the terrorists are winning has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two years.

For many Americans, the national color-coded terror alert system adopted after the 9/11 attacks had lost much of its original meaning, so it's not surprising that 53% of voters agree with the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to abandon that system in favor of more specific warnings.

Speaking of the budget, few voters in today’s economic climate consider themselves liberals on fiscal policy issues, but there’s a little more divergence of opinion when it comes to social issues. Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters describe themselves as conservative on fiscal issues, while 42% say the same on social issues. Only seven percent (7%) describe themselves as liberal on fiscal policy issues, but nearly four times as many (26%) say they're liberal when it comes to social issues.

Most voters (58%) continue to favor repeal of the national health care law, but now that the Republican-run House has voted to repeal and sent it on to the Democratic-controlled Senate, confidence that the law ultimately will be repealed has fallen to its lowest level in four months.

More than half the states are challenging the constitutionality of the health care law in court, many focusing on the requirement that every American must have health insurance. More voters than ever (58%) oppose that requirement and think states should have the right to opt out of some or all of the health care law.

Voters remain concerned, too, that the health care law will cause some employers to drop their health insurance coverage, and most still question the exemptions to the law the Obama administration is granting to some businesses.

But overall voters were a little happier last month with the job the president is doing. His job approval ratings as measured by the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll improved in January, with his monthly index at its highest level since April of last year.

The Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes are up only slightly from the first of the year, but the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor jumped to a three-year high in January, fueled by a surge in the number of middle-income consumers who see improvement in the U.S. economy and in their personal finances.

Some of that money is likely to be bet this weekend by the 54% of Super Bowl watchers who say they’ll be focusing intently on the game. Forty percent (40%) admit they will mainly be socializing while the game is on, but then one-out-of-three Super Bowl viewers (35%) think the commercials are better than the action on the field anyway.

The big political game of the next 18 months – the battle for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012 – is in the very early stages and it’s hard to know who will emerge as serious candidates.

Most Republican Primary voters are looking for experience in both the private sector and government in a potential presidential candidate. Private sector experience carries a bit more weight. They are also overwhelmingly looking for someone who shares their views as opposed to someone who is merely electable.

Sarah Palin remains one of the most popular potential candidates, but a sizable number of primary voters hope she doesn’t get the nomination. However, nearly half of the likely primary voters who support Palin say they are at least somewhat likely to vote for a third-party candidate if she does not win the Republican nomination.

In other surveys last week:

-- Thirty-two percent (32%) of voters say the country is heading in the right direction. That’s up three points from the previous week and the highest finding since mid-October.

-- Republicans hold a seven-point lead – 45% to 38% - over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending January 30.

-- The number of American Adults identifying themselves as Republicans fell in January, while the number calling themselves Democrats inched up. In each of the recent election cycles, the victorious party has gained in net partisan identification over the course of the election year, but the gains are generally short-lived.

-- Most voters (51%) expect politics in Washington, D.C. to become more partisan over the next year, but that's one of the lowest findings on this question since June 2009.

-- The Rasmussen Employment Index made a modest gain in January and is now up 11 points from the beginning of 2010 and 16 points from January 2009.

-- The majority of Americans believe movies have a negative impact on society and lead to an increase in violence. Still, while most adults seldom, if ever, darken the door of a movie theater these days, plenty of them are watching movies at home.

-- The new national health care law has made Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services, one of the most powerful women in America, but nearly half the country’s voters don’t seem to know who she is.

-- Most Americans (68%) hold 92-year-old Nelson Mandela in high regard as the iconic South African leader recovers from a respiratory infection that put him in the hospital recently.

-- Americans are having a little more fun behind the wheel these days. Forty-three percent (43%) now view driving a car as something they really enjoy, up from 39% a year ago. Most (51%), however, still regard driving primarily as a way to get from Point A to Point B.

[Doug64]

Almost forgot this, oops!

Let the budget battle begin.

House Republicans, feeling empowered by an angry electorate, are looking to cut billions of dollars from the federal budget and are now discussing plans to defund the national health care law since repeal has run aground in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

After all, the majority of voters still support repeal of the law and remain convinced that it will drive up the cost and hurt the quality of health care in the country.

As they have from the beginning of the health care debate, voters see cost reduction as more important than ensuring universal coverage. Sixty-two percent (62%) believe reducing the cost of health care is more important than making sure that everyone has health insurance. Just 29% think universal health insurance coverage is more important.

But other than recognizing that budgets at all levels of government have grown too big, some Americans have a lot to learn about where their tax dollars go.

In 1954, the average new house cost just over $10,000, a new car was under $2,000, and gasoline was under 30 cents a gallon. It was also the last year that overall government spending in America declined from one year to the next. But only 60% of Americans believe that to be true.

Just 56% of voters recognize that the United States spends about six times as much on national defense as any other nation in the world.

The defense budget is likely to take a sizable cut, so how do voters think those dollars should be reallocated? For one thing, voters overwhelmingly think terrorism is a bigger threat to the country than traditional wars. But they have mixed feelings about refocusing the military toward fighting terrorism.

Nearly half (48%) of voters think America would be a safer place with less spending on the military and some of the savings put into securing the borders.

Half (49%) also believe it is time to pull American troops out of Western Europe and let the Europeans defend themselves. The numbers are similar for Japan, but not South Korea.

Most voters continue to believe that the current policies of the federal government encourage illegal immigration. However, voters are now almost evenly divided over whether it's better to let the federal government or individual states enforce immigration laws.

The United States has military defense treaties with over 50 nations around the globe from obvious ones like the United Kingdom and Germany to less predictable ones like Costa Rica and Iceland. Rasmussen Reports asked whether the United States should help militarily defend some of these less prominent allies if attacked, but only Australia gets a strong commitment from the American people.

Egypt is arguably America’s strongest Arab ally, but while voters aren’t convinced that changing the government there is good for the United States, they still feel strongly that America should stay out of the political crisis engulfing the country.

With the crisis in Egypt dominating the headlines, most voters give good marks to America’s chief diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Sixty percent (60%) hold at least a somewhat favorable opinion of Clinton. Forty-four percent (44%) have at least a somewhat favorable regard for Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

The United Nations has been conspicuously absent from the diplomatic activity surrounding the political crisis in Egypt, but few U.S. voters lack an opinion of the New York-based international organization. Only 27% of voters regard the UN as an ally of the United States, while 15% see the organization as an enemy. Fifty-four percent (54%) put it somewhere in between the two. This is consistent with findings for some time now.

While congressional Republicans hope to make major cuts in the federal budget, President Obama has plans of his own for the economy. He told the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week that government and business “can and must work together." But 68% of voters think government and big business already work together against the interests of consumers and investors.

The Rasmussen Investor Index jumped at week’s end, continuing the growth in investor confidence begun last year. Consumer confidence as measured by the Rasmussen Consumer Index is also up slightly from the first of the year.

Homeowners, on the other hand, continue to hold little hope for the value of their house in the short-term and show no new confidence in long-term recovery. Only 21% of Adults who own a house say its value will go up in the next year. Even when asked about their home’s value in five years, only 51% of homeowners say it will go up.

At the same time, the number of homeowners who say their home is worth more than what they still owe on their mortgage (51%) has fallen to its lowest level in nearly two years.

Interestingly, despite the anemic economy, half of all Americans now own stocks, bonds or mutual funds, but most are also unaware of that fact. But then while the United States boasts the world’s largest economy, fewer than half the nation’s voters (45%) recognize this fact.

Whichever economic course they follow, the president and Congress better be careful. Economists still argue about what caused the Great Depression of the 1930s and what got the nation out of it. But 43% of voters think government policy mistakes converted a normal recession into an unprecedented Depression. Just 26% disagree, although 31% are not sure.

The economy is sure be central to the upcoming presidential election, and an early look at potential 2012 match-ups indicates that the contest is likely to be a referendum on Obama. That’s typical when an incumbent runs for reelection. The numbers show that Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee essentially run even with the president at this point. Three other well-known potential candidates, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, trail Obama.

On Friday, the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll found that 50% of voters at least somewhat approved of the president's performance, while 49% disapproved.

In other surveys last week:

-- Thirty percent (30%) of voters say the country is heading in the right direction.

-- Republicans again hold a seven-point lead – 45% to 38% - over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot.

-- Governors of several major states in an effort to improve lagging student performance are seeking ways to get rid of poor teachers by weakening or eliminating longstanding teacher tenure policies. Most Americans agree that it’s too difficult right now to get poor teachers out of the classroom.

-- The debate rages as it has for decades whether there really is a constitutionally mandated separation of church and state, but 65% of American Adults favor prayer in public schools.

-- Forty-five percent (45%) of Americans plan to celebrate Black History Month to honor the role of African-Americans in U.S. history, but most adults don't think it should be used as a model for other major racial and ethnic groups in the country.

-- Voters are now more inclined to view the November 2009 massacre at Fort Hood, Texas as a criminal act rather than terrorism, but they feel just as strongly that the Muslim U.S. Army major charged with the killings should be executed if convicted in his upcoming trial.

-- Sixty-two percent (62%) of Americans told us they planned to watch Super Bowl XLV, and by a 48% to 41% margin, would-be watchers predicted the Green Bay Packers would beat the Pittsburgh Steelers.

-- Christina Aguilera, opening Sunday’s Super Bowl game with an otherwise rousing version of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” isn’t the first person to have trouble with the words in our national anthem. Or those pesky high notes, for that matter. But only 15% of American Adults think the United States should change its national anthem to another popular patriotic song such as “America the Beautiful” or “God Bless America.”

-- Nearly two-out-of three (64%) of Americans say they’re at least somewhat likely to buy Girl Scout cookies this year, including 43% who say they are Very Likely to do so.

-- Maybe it's the doughnuts that make the difference. While Americans are more likely to buy their coffee at Starbucks, they like Dunkin' Donuts better.

[Doug64]

Another week, and the budget fallout starts:

Money, money, money. The conservative backlash witnessed in last November’s elections is now hitting the bottom line.

House Republicans closed the week with a vote to cut $60 billion out of the current federal budget, and Democrats are screaming bloody murder. Meanwhile, partisan warfare has erupted in Wisconsin where a new conservative GOP governor with a sizable state budget deficit wants to severely restrict the collective bargaining power of public employees. Other states are expected to follow his lead.

Rasmussen Reports has regularly asked voters for several years to rate the importance of 10 key issues, and the economy is always number one. Eighty-three percent (83%) now rate it as a Very Important issue. Voters also have consistently told us for years that what’s best for the economy is less government spending and more tax cuts.

Despite President Obama’s insistence that his proposed $3.7 trillion federal budget for fiscal 2012 includes major spending cuts, most voters (55%) don’t think the cuts go far enough. A plurality (40%) of voters don’t think the congressional GOP is cutting enough either.

Still, many voters appear confused because of the ongoing spin game out of Washington, DC. While the documents the White House includes with the president’s budget proposal project that government spending will top $4 trillion in the next two to three years, most voters aren't aware of that increase amidst all the talk of spending cuts. Just 39% think that, according to the president's budget proposal, government spending will increase to more than $4 trillion over the next few years. Twenty-nine percent (29%) think instead that the budget projects a decrease in spending to less than $3.5 trillion, while 32% are not sure.

Yet voters clearly don’t have much confidence in their elected leaders to make the spending cuts necessary to reduce the nation’s historic-level budget deficit. Seventy percent (70%) think voters are more willing to make the hard choices needed to reduce federal spending than elected politicians are.

In fact, if the federal government is looking for places to cut, Americans offered several suggestions in our surveys just this past week:

-- Most voters continue to favor repeal of the national health care law.

-- While they aren’t paying much attention to the president’s plan for building a high-speed national rail system, voters believe by a 57% to 28% margin that cutting government spending would do more to create jobs than building a high-speed rail network.

-- Fifty-three percent (53%) of Americans think the government should stop underwriting Amtrak rail service to the tune of several billion dollars a year.

-- While many Americans continue to believe there is a need for the U.S. Postal Service, they’re okay with cutting back home mail delivery to five days a week.

-- Most voters (57%) continue to believe that government bailouts were a bad idea, and a plurality (49%) still fears the government will do too much to try to help the economy. Just over half of Americans think General Motors and Chrysler may repay their taxpayer bailouts, but that doesn’t change the negative view of future bailouts.

A sizable number (44%) of Americans remain less likely to buy a GM car because of the company’s government bailout. One-in-four says anti-buyout sentiment has kept them or someone they know from buying a GM vehicle.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is at the heart of the Obama administration's decisions about the economy, but only 24% of voters have at least a somewhat favorable view of Geithner, consistent with surveys for the past two years. Voters have a less favorable opinion of Attorney General Eric Holder these days. Twenty-five percent (25%) regard him favorably, down 10 points from August 2009.

Among Holder’s recent actions that most voters disapprove of is the Justice Department challenge of Arizona’s effort to crack down on illegal immigration. Now Arizona has sued the federal government for failing to enforce immigration laws. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of voters nationwide – two-out-of-three – think a state should have the right to enforce immigration laws if it believes the federal government is not enforcing them.

Only 28% of voters believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed, a foundational principle of the United States. Thirty-seven percent (37%) even think a group of people selected at random from the phone book could do a better job addressing the nation’s problems than the current Congress, although 41% disagree.

Republicans now hold a six-point lead over Democrats – 45% to 39% - on the Generic Congressional Ballot.

On Friday, the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll showed that 46% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance, while 52% at least somewhat disapprove.

At week’s end, the Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes were down from a week ago but only marginally lower than they were at the first of the year.

The COUNTRY Financial Security Index(R) finds that Americans are starting the year with a little more confidence: Financial security sentiments have reached their highest level since April of last year. This marks the first time Americans have started the year with improved sentiments since the COUNTRY Index began in 2007.

In other surveys last week:

-- Thirty-one percent (31%) of Likely U.S. Voters say the country is heading in the right direction. Sixty-four percent (64%) say the country is heading down the wrong track.

-- A plurality (48%) of voters continue to feel America’s best days are behind us, but most (66%) still feel U.S. society is fair and decent.

-- Following Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak’s decision to step down, U.S. voters are a bit more confident that Egypt’s change of power will be good for the United States. Seventy-six percent (76%) believe that it’s generally good for America when dictators in other countries are replaced with leaders selected in free and fair elections.

-- Fifty percent (50%) of voters consider themselves pro-choice, while 40% say they are pro-life, unchanged for several years. However, that does not mean half of U.S. voters are abortion advocates. Fifty-three percent (53%) of all voters consider abortion morally wrong most of the time, while just 32% say it is morally acceptable most of the time.

-- George Washington is the only U.S. president who is officially honored with a federal holiday, but given a list of some of America’s most influential other past presidents, more than one-in-four Americans choose Ronald Reagan as the one if another were to be recognized with a holiday. John F. Kennedy comes in second.

-- But 28% of Americans say there are already too many federal holidays, while 13% say there aren’t enough of them. Most Americans (53%) say the number of federal holidays is about right.

-- Speaking of holidays of the non-federal variety, just 29% of American Adults told us they were looking forward to Valentine’s Day. Nearly as many (22%) said they dreaded the day, while 49% didn’t have strong feelings one way or the other. Most (68%) said their preferred activity on Valentine’s Day is to dine with someone special.

[Doug64]

No surprise, Wisconsin and Libya lead off the polls this week:

Wisconsin and Libya. Angry protesters are in the streets. Here at home they’re exercising their democratic rights in a budget battle; over there, they’re being shot down for seeking democratic rights in real battles.

A sizable number of voters are following new Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s showdown with unionized public employees in an effort to close the state’s growing budget deficit, and nearly half (47%) now side with the governor. Sixty-seven percent (67%) oppose the tactic by Democratic state senators to flee Wisconsin to prevent a vote that would limit the rights of some public employee unions, but support for the unions is now at 42%, up from 38% earlier in the week.

The teachers’ unions are among those Walker and other budget-conscious governors have targeted. Americans continue to believe strongly that being a teacher is an essential job, but a plurality (46%) thinks it’s a bad thing that most teachers are unionized. Thirty-seven percent (37%) disagree and say, in terms of its impact on the nation, it’s a good thing that these teachers belong to public employee unions.

Most Americans also have their eye on the growing political unrest in a number of Arab nations including Libya. Just 29% think a change of government in any of these countries will be good for the United States, but 67% still say America should stay out of the situation over there.

Fifty-eight percent (58%) of Adults already think the unrest in the Arab world may lead to a major new war involving the United States, with 26% who say it is Very Likely. Thirty-one percent (31%) see that outcome as unlikely, but that includes just four percent (4%) who say it is Not At All Likely.

Egypt has long been the second largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid, but despite its apparent turn toward democracy and similar ongoing moves in neighboring countries, the majority of Americans want to end that aid to all Arab nations in the Middle East. Just over half favor continuing foreign aid to the number one recipient, Israel.

With President Obama maintaining a relatively low profile as political unrest spreads through the Arab world, the number of voters who rate his handling of national security issues as poor (36%) has hit its highest level since the beginning of December. Forty percent (40%) give the president good or excellent marks in the national security area, down five points from surveys the last three weeks. However, this survey was taken prior to the U.S. government’s announcement yesterday of economic sanctions against Libya in response to the violent methods being used to put down the protestors there.

Voters also are inclined to think the president can do a better job when it comes to the economy. Thirty-five percent (35%) feel the president is doing a good or excellent job handling the economy, but 47% rate the job he's doing in this area as poor, the most negative finding since mid-November.

While voters may question how Obama is dealing with the bad economy and think his new budget doesn't cut deeply enough, most (52%) still blame the recession that began under his predecessor George W. Bush for the problems he's trying to deal with.

Obama’s overall job approval ratings have taken a dive in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll, and the number of voters who give him favorable ratings for leadership has fallen to its lowest level since he took office in January 2009. Just 37% of voters now say the president is doing a good or excellent job as a leader. Forty percent (40%) view his performance as poor.

On the other hand, voters are showing slightly less negativity towards Congress. Only 15% give Congress good or excellent marks. Still, that’s the body’s highest positive ratings since last August. Forty-two percent (42%) say Congress is doing a poor job, but that is the lowest negative rating found since regular tracking began in November 2006.

At the same time, favorability ratings have dropped for all of the top congressional leaders except House Speaker John Boehner.

Republicans hold a nine-point lead over Democrats – 46% to 37% - on the Generic Congressional Ballot.

Voters have more confidence now that Republicans rather than Democrats have a plan for the future, and they’re almost evenly divided over whether either political party is really the party of the American people.

As for economic indicators, the Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures daily consumer confidence, has fallen to a new low for the year. Its companion Rasmussen Investor Index is down 11 points from a month ago.

Trends over time in the Rasmussen Consumer Index suggest that confidence in the overall economy does not lead to confidence about personal finances, and vice versa.

In case Americans aren’t in a bad enough economic mood, it’s tax time again. Only nine percent (9%) of Americans think the United States has the best tax system in the world, perhaps in part because many still question the fairness of what they have to pay.

The downward trend of early tax filers continues, with just 29% of Americans saying that they have already filed their income taxes.

In other surveys last week:

-- Most voters nationwide (56%) continue to favor repeal of the national health care law, but one-in-five now believe the plan will have no real impact on the federal deficit.

-- Twenty-six percent (26%) of Likely U.S. Voters say the country is heading in the right direction, down five points from the week before and the lowest finding since the beginning of the year.

-- Many people believe the United States and its allies should cooperate more, and a solid majority (55%) of U.S. voters still think that the better way for that to happen is for America's allies to follow our lead.

-- When it comes to illegal immigration, most voters believe the government just needs to enforce the laws that are already on the books. Two-out-of-three voters (67%) say it’s better to enforce existing immigration laws than to create new laws in order to combat illegal immigration. Just 24% say new immigration laws are the better course.

-- The rise of electronic readers and online outlets such as Amazon threaten to make the traditional bookstore obsolete as the recent bankruptcy of Borders Books suggests. While most are still most likely to go to a bookstore or some other retail store to buy a book one-out-of-four buy from the Internet or download directly to an e-reader.

-- Americans have an overwhelmingly favorable view of George Washington, the nation’s first president, but very few consider his birthday -- honored last Monday as President’s Day -- a very important holiday.

-- Americans view Ronald Reagan as America's most influential president in the past half-century.

-- One-in-three Americans (33%) say they are at least somewhat likely to watch Sunday night’s 83rd annual Academy Awards. Their favorites in the best acting categories are Jeff Bridges in "True Grit" and Natalie Portman in "Black Swan."

[Doug64]

And this week it's the budget fights:

President Obama once famously noted that “elections have consequences.” Legislators in Washington, D.C. and Madison, Wisconsin can certainly attest to the truth of that statement. Republican gains have translated into major budget battles involving issues and programs that Democrats have held dear for years.

The U.S. Congress is stalemated as Democrats fight $57 billion in additional spending cuts Republicans want to make in the federal budget for 2011, but most Likely Voters (53%) continue to believe that the proposed GOP cuts aren’t very significant.

Most voters (58%) would rather have a partial shutdown of the federal government than keep government spending at current levels. Democrats overwhelmingly believe a shutdown would be bad for the economy but Republicans and unaffiliated voters are evenly divided as to whether the impact would be good or bad.

Most voters still want to see the national health care law repealed, too, and confidence that repeal will actually happen is on the upswing. Belief that repeal will be good for the economy, however, has fallen to its lowest level ever.

Voters continue to strongly prefer cuts in government spending to tax increases, but for the first time in nearly two years, slightly more voters (45%) would vote for a candidate who promises to raise taxes only on the wealthy than one who promises to oppose all tax increases (41%). Is it statistical noise or the beginning of a trend? We’ll see.

Fewer than half the nation’s voters believe the congressional agenda of either major party is in the political mainstream. Just 32% describe the agenda of Democrats in Congress as mainstream while 40% say the same about the congressional Republican agenda as extreme.

Republicans now hold a six-point lead over Democrats – 45% to 39% - on the Generic Congressional Ballot. The number of American Adults identifying themselves as Republicans and Democrats fell for the second straight month in February. Just 35.1% consider themselves to be Republicans, while 34.3% call themselves Democrats.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a Republican, won his job last November with 52% of the vote, but his popularity has slipped since he’s taken on unionized public employees as a way to cut his state’s growing budget deficit. Forty-three percent (43%) of Wisconsin voters now at least somewhat approve of the job he is doing, while 57% disapprove. Among those who voted for Walker last November, 77% approve of his performance, while 93% of those who voted for his Democratic opponent Tom Barrett disapprove.

Wisconsin voters continue to see spending cuts as the proper path to solving the state’s budgetary woes. Forty-four percent (44%) believe the state's deficit should be reduced through spending cuts alone. Another eight percent (8%) could see some tax cuts in the mix but would prefer more spending cuts than tax hikes. A third of the state’s voters (33%) believe that deficit reduction should include an equal mix of spending cuts and tax hikes.

Still, most voters in Wisconsin oppose Walker’s efforts to weaken collective bargaining rights for unionized public employees. However, a plurality are supportive of significant pay cuts for state workers.

Walker’s moves have drawn national attention, and GOP governors in New Jersey and Ohio have embarked on similar efforts to make unionized public employees pay more for their health and pension benefits.

Sixty-six percent (66%) of voters nationwide think those who work for the government get better retirement benefits than those who work for private companies and also say it’s unlikely their state can afford the benefits given to state workers. Only 13% think government employees work harder than private sector workers.

Even a recent CBS News/New York Times poll found that a plurality (37%) of American adults think labor unions have “too much influence on American life and politics today.” Only half as many (19%) believe that unions have too little influence. Twenty-nine percent (29%) say the level of influence is about right.

Obama is siding with the protesting union workers which is perhaps no surprise since the public employee unions overwhelmingly favor Democratic candidates in elections. The number of voters who Strongly Disapprove of the president’s performance inched up a point in February to 39% in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. The number who Strongly Approve of Obama’s performance dipped a point to 26%. The new figures generate a full-month Presidential Approval Index rating of -13. The president’s approval index rating stayed between -14 and -17 for most of last year, with one exception in April when his index improved to -11.

The Rasmussen Employment Index, which measures workers’ perceptions of the labor market each month, inched up slightly in February. It’s up nine points from a one year ago and 18 points from two years ago to the highest reading since September 2008.

At the same time, however, 32% of American Adults think unemployment will be higher in a year’s time. Only 27% expect the unemployment rate to be lower one year from now. Private sector workers are more likely than government employees to think unemployment will be higher. The current numbers are more pessimistic than a month ago but similar to results found last year at this time.

Economic confidence among small business owners remained steady in February, according to the monthly Discover (R) Small Business Watch (SM). Although a few more small business owners said the overall economy is getting better, a rise in cash flow issues kept confidence flat.

But at week’s end, the Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, was at its lowest level yet in 2011.

In other surveys last week:

-- Twenty-seven percent (27%) of Likely U.S. Voters now say the country is heading in the right direction, down from a recent high of 32% in late January.

-- Most Americans feel public schools are a good investment for taxpayers but also agree that the quality of public school education has gone down in recent years.

-- A plurality of voters fears that the growing unrest in the Arab world will have a negative impact on the fragile political situation in Iraq, and most think it is unlikely that all U.S. troops will be out of that country by the end of the year as planned.

-- Looking back, 51% of voters believe the United States should never have gotten involved in Iraq in the first place. They also believe the mission there was more a failure than a success.

-- Americans overwhelmingly believe the current political unrest in the Arab world will make them pay a lot more at the pump. Fifty-eight percent (58%) of voters believe gas is likely to top the $5-a-gallon mark by the beginning of summer.

-- Gas prices have been rising dramatically in recent days, and opposition to the president’s ban on oil drilling off the Eastern seaboard and in the eastern portion of the Gulf of Mexico is up to 55% from 48% in early December when the policy was first announced.

-- Despite energy concerns, most voters don’t know enough about the president’s Energy secretary Steven Chu to voice any kind of opinion of him. They also know little about his fellow Cabinet member, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan.

-- With gas prices rising by the minute, American Adults remain overwhelmingly concerned about inflation. Eighty-two percent (82%) are at least somewhat concerned about inflation, including 52% who are Very Concerned.

-- Charlie Sheen is this week’s headline celebrity, and just 16% of Adults have a favorable opinion of the “Two and a Half Men” TV star.

[Doug64]

Leading off with the economy and the Middle East:

Americans don’t much like the way things are going these days.

At week’s end, daily confidence as measured in the Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes had fallen to new lows for the year. The number of adults nationwide who expect interest rates to go up over the next year has risen again this month to a new high of 52%.

Only one-out-of-three workers (33%) nationwide expects to earn more money a year from now, marking the lowest level of optimism in nearly two years. The number of employees looking for a new employer (30%) has reached its highest level in nearly two years.

At the same time, a majority of Likely U.S. Voters, for the first time, supports an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Afghanistan or the creation of a timetable to bring them all home within a year. Just 18% believe the situation in that country will improve in the next six months.

The fighting continues in another Muslim country, Libya, but while officials in Washington consider possible U.S. military responses, 63% of voters favor a hands-off approach.

Recent surveys have found that Americans worry the current turmoil in the Arab world may drag the United States into another big war, but most voters think terrorism on the home front is a bigger danger than traditional wars.

The House Committee on Homeland Security held hearings this past week to examine the threat of domestic terrorism, and a sizable number of voters think the government is not paying enough attention to possible Islamic terrorism in America. Sixty-four percent (64%) are now concerned that people who have become U.S. citizens will attempt to commit terrorist acts against the United States.

Islamic groups and others have protested the hearings, saying they are likely to give rise to increased bigotry against Muslims in this country. But right now only 17% of voters believe that most Muslims in America are treated unfairly because of their religion and ethnicity. Fifty-seven percent (57%) complain that American Muslims are not speaking out enough against potential terrorist attacks in the United States.

The nation’s porous borders are another national security concern. While little is being said on Capitol Hill about immigration reform these days, voters remain strongly convinced that border control should come first.

Most voters also continue to favor strong sanctions on employers who hire illegal immigrants and landlords who rent to them. Voters still feel strongly, too, that police should check the immigration status of drivers during routine traffic stops, a practice Arizona adopted into law last year but is now subject to a U.S. Justice Department challenge in federal court.

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, a former governor of Arizona, is the Obama administration’s face on the immigration and domestic security fronts. Perhaps not surprisingly, when you throw in the uproar over TSA airport security pat-downs, too, she remains one of the better-known - and most unpopular - members of President Obama's Cabinet.

Speaking of the president, a majority (61%) of voters still believe he is more ideologically liberal than they are. But then a plurality (48%) of U.S. voters classify themselves as fiscal conservatives, while just 14% say they’re fiscal liberals.

The president’s job approval ratings continue to stumble along in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. As the week came to a close, 46% of voters at least somewhat approved of the president's job performance, while 53% disapproved.

Maybe it’s good for the president that the American people don’t directly set his salary. Americans tend to think teachers should get paid more than those in several other professions including doctors, military personnel and the president of the United States.

Most American Adults think how much money an individual is paid should depend more on what they get done on the job rather than their educational background or how long they’ve worked for a company. Union workers or those with union members in their families are more supportive of seniority than non-union members.

Public employee unions have been at the forefront of the national political debate in recent weeks, thanks to budget-cutting moves by Wisconsin’s new Republican governor that include severely curtailing their collective bargaining rights. Polls have been all over the place on what the public thinks about this dispute, but such differences are fairly common when new issues arise, and the best way to approach the subject is to review all the data and learn from it.

Rasmussen Reports this past week asked Wisconsin voters about some of the specifics in the contest between the governor and the unions. Voters in the state, for example, remain strongly opposed to “weakening collective bargaining rights” but are very supportive of substantial changes in the collective bargaining process.

At the same time, a plurality (48%) of Wisconsin voters think voters should have the right to approve or reject new pension plans agreed to by government officials and union members if they'll lead to increased government spending. They are evenly divided as to whether approval should be required for public employee pay raises that push spending higher.

With a little legislative maneuvering, Wisconsin Republicans appear to have won their budget battle for now, but similar fights are expected in other states as they attempt to tackle their growing budget deficits.

In other surveys last week:

-- A majority of voters nationwide continue to favor repeal of the national health care law, but those who have health insurance don’t think it’s very likely they will have to change their coverage.

-- Republicans continue to hold a six-point lead over Democrats – 45% to 39% - on the Generic Congressional Ballot. The number of voters who believe politics inside the Beltway will become more partisan over the next year has reached its highest level in nearly six months.

-- For the second week in a row, just 27% of Likely U.S. Voters say the country is heading in the right direction. Confidence in the nation's current course hovered around the 30% mark for roughly a year until late October 2010 and then fell to a low of 23% in early to mid-December. But confidence began rising again at that time and hit a new high of 32% in late January.

-- Most Americans favor some kind of government action to help the unemployed, but now nearly half oppose the idea of the government simply hiring more workers.

-- Pro-life state legislators are pushing several measures that critics view as restrictions on abortion, and most Americans agree that two of these proposals including a three-day waiting period with counseling in South Dakota are at least somewhat likely to reduce the number of abortions in America.

-- Most Americans don’t think the laws they live under apply to the rich and famous in quite the same way.

-- Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of the Peace Corps as the government-run volunteer program celebrates its 50th anniversary. But 66% believe volunteering for a private charity is more effective than volunteering for a government organization.

-- Rutgers is the latest university to announce it will provide “gender-neutral” housing for students, but 71% of American Adults think men and women should not be allowed to live in the same dormitory room while in college.

[Doug64]

And of course the lead issue this week is Japan and nuclear power:

Much of America’s focus this past week has been on events across the Pacific and what they mean here at home.

Over 90% of voters have been following news reports about the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit Japan, events that triggered a still unfolding crisis at a nuclear plant there. Sixty percent (60%) of voters believe the Japanese earthquake will hurt the U.S. economy, and just over one-in-four plan to donate money to help the stricken island nation.

One early consequence of the situation in Japan appears to be weakening support for the building of new nuclear plants in this country. Now just 40% of voters favor the building of more nuclear plants in the United States, the lowest level of support in nearly three years of surveying. There was a similar backlash against offshore oil drilling last year following the massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, but support has since rebounded.

Voters are closely divided over whether Japan is giving the world the straight story about the problems at the Fukushima nuclear plant. After all, 45% are now at least somewhat concerned that any radiation that escapes from Japanese nuclear plants may reach the United States, including 18% who are Very Concerned. This is virtually unchanged from earlier in the week.

As world markets react to Japan’s immense problems, Americans don’t need any more economic bad news.

Just 22% of Likely U.S. Voters now think the United States is heading in the right direction, the lowest level of confidence found since before President Obama’s inauguration in January 2009.

The number of voters who think America's best days still lie ahead is now at its lowest level in 17 months. Only 34% predict that the country's best days are in the future, the lowest finding since October 2009. Forty-eight percent (48%) say America's best days are behind us, identical to last month and the highest level of pessimism since last July.

Homeowners are more pessimistic about both the short-term and long-term housing market. Now only 44% expect the value of their homes to go up in the next five years.

The Rasmussen Investor Index hit a new low for the year this past week, while the companion Rasmussen Consumer Index continued to stumble along barely above its lowest readings since September of last year. The indexes measure the daily economic confidence of consumers and investors.

But voters continue to express little confidence in government as the solution to the nation’s economic problems. Forty-seven percent (47%) of voters, in fact, still worry that the federal government will do too much in reacting to the nation’s current economic problems. Thirty-nine percent (39%) fear that the government will not do enough. These findings are in line with voter sentiments since November 2008 just after Obama’s election and the Wall Street meltdown. Just 27% think the government bailouts of banks, auto companies and insurance companies were good for the United States.

At the same time, support for repeal of the national health care law reached 62% this past week, the highest level since May of last year. The number of voters who believe the plan will increase the cost of care has tied its highest level since the law’s passage a year ago.

Obama ended the week with little change in his overall job approval numbers as measured by the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

Yet in spite of the unhappiness with some of the government’s recent actions, roughly half of Americans already have filed their income taxes with a month to go until the deadline. That’s on track with the level of filing in previous years.

But most continue to believe the middle class pays a bigger share of its income in taxes than those who are wealthy, and they favor an income tax system where everyone pays the same percentage of their income.

Americans are not willing to pay more in taxes to reduce the country’s historic-level budget deficit. Just 20% of Adults would be willing to pay higher taxes for that purpose. But then 83% say the size of the deficit is due more to the unwillingness of politicians to cut government spending than to the reluctance of taxpayers to pay more in taxes.

Still, Americans aren’t prepared yet to abruptly cut the size of the government work force. Only 26% of Adults think it would be good for the economy if the federal government laid off 100,000 workers. Forty-nine percent (49%) say a layoff like that would be bad for the economy. Fourteen percent (14%) say it would have no impact. However, in a separate poll, 60% of voters recently indicated a willingness to cut the federal payroll by 10% over the next decade.

The federal government in fiscal year 2009 had 4.43 million employees, including nearly 1.6 million men and women in the armed services. USA Today reports that the average federal worker’s pay and benefits totalled $123,049 in 2009, while on average private workers made $61,051 in total compensation. It’s unclear if this finding includes military personnel.

The government worker issue is most visible these days on the state level as Republican governors in several states including Wisconsin and Ohio are challenging public employee unions in an effort to overcome sizable budget deficits.

Members of public employee unions prefer Democrats over Republicans on the Generic Congressional Ballot by a 28-percentage-point margin. Among private sector union members, the gap is half that size.

In other surveys last week:

-- March Madness is underway, and two teams – Ohio State and Duke - are in a virtual tie as the pick to win the NCAA tournament among college basketball fans.

-- Despite his longstanding efforts to close it, the president announced recently that the terrorist prison camp at Guantanamo Naval Base in Cuba will remain open indefinitely and that trials by military tribunals will resume there. Voters support both decisions.

-- Republicans hold a nine-point lead over Democrats – 46% to 37% - on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending March 13, 2011.

-- Ronald Reagan was the last president who didn't graduate from an Ivy League school like Harvard or Yale, and the highest levels of government for much of the nation's history have been filled with Ivy League grads. But only three percent (3%) of Americans say individuals who go to Ivy League schools are better workers than those who go to other schools.

-- Communism as an ideological force largely died with the collapse of the Soviet Union 20 years ago, but even with many of its horrors increasingly forgotten, U.S. voters overwhelmingly reject the ideology that contended for world dominance for much of the 20th Century. Only 11% think communism is morally superior to the U.S. system of politics and economics. But 77% disagree and say the U.S. system is morally superior.

-- With gas prices soaring, the pressure's on the Obama administration to increase the number of permits for deepwater oil drilling. Right now, just 16% of Likely U.S. Voters have a favorable opinion of the man who'll grant those permits, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, with a scant one percent (1%) who regard him Very Favorably.

-- Americans lost an hour of sleep last weekend in exchange for another hour of afternoon daylight, but 47% don’t think Daylight Saving Time is worth the hassle.

-- It’s been one year since Tiger Woods announced he would make his competitive return to golf following months of tabloid scandal, but Americans’ opinions of the golfer have changed little since then. Just 31% of American Adults share a favorable opinion of Woods, while 60% view him unfavorably.

-- The votes are in, and the new judges on "American Idol" have a fair number of fans so far. Fifty-two percent (52%) of Americans have a favorable opinion of singer-actress Jennifer Lopez, making her more popular than fellow judges Randy Jackson and Steven Tyler.

-- Very few Americans consider St. Patrick's Day an important holiday, but nearly half of adults planned to wear green that day anyway. Twenty-one percent (21%) intended to have a drink to celebrate.

[Doug64]

And this week the lead is naturally Libya:

Americans began the week finding themselves in military action in yet another Islamic country.

At week’s end, voters expressed mixed feelings about President Obama's decision to help rebels in Libya overthrow longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, and nearly half agreed that he should have gotten Congress' okay first.

Earlier in the week, voters were more supportive of an American role in the Libyan crisis than they had been before U.S. missiles began to strike but also were more critical of the president’s handling of the situation.

While the Obama administration presses on with the military mission in Libya, just 28% of Likely U.S. Voters think the North African country is a vital national security interest for the United States these days. Forty-two percent (42%) disagree and say Libya is not important to U.S. national security, while a sizable 29% are not sure.

Still, voters’ views of Obama’s leadership style have rebounded from last month’s all-time low. Forty-four percent (44%) of voters now give the president good or excellent marks for leadership, up from 37% in February. Thirty-seven percent (37%) continue to give him poor marks as a leader.

The president’s job approval ratings show no overall improvement, however, in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

Voters continue to blame the country’s economic problems more on the recession that began under the Bush administration than on Obama’s policies. But the number of voters nationwide who give the current president good or excellent marks for his handling of economic issues has fallen to a new low of 31%.

But then Americans are now showing less optimism about long-term economic recovery than ever before. Only 46% of American Adults now think the U.S. economy will be stronger in five years, the lowest finding since regular surveying on the question began in January 2009. There is even more pessimism about the short-term economy.

Other regular Rasmussen Reports surveying finds little optimism about the economy.

A majority of Americans still think that purchasing a home is the best investment a family can make, but they also say overwhelmingly that now is not the time for someone in their area to sell a house.

Nearly one-third (31%) of U.S. homeowners continue to say that they owe more on their mortgage than their home is worth, a figure that has ranged from 28% to 36% in surveys since April 2009.

Forty-four percent (44%) of Adults now say it’s possible for anyone who really wants to work to find a job, but just as many (44%) disagree. Americans have been evenly divided on this question since July 2009. This number was at its lowest point in January 2010 when it dipped to 39% and was at its highest a year earlier at 52%.

The Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes, which measure the economic confidence of both groups on a daily basis, were slightly improved this past week but are still down from the beginning of the year. Half of consumers (50%) say the economy is getting worse, as do a plurality (45%) of investors.

The new Congress continues to battle over major spending cuts which most voters think are key to a better economy. Voters nationwide view the leaders of Congress a little more favorably this month, with House Speaker John Boehner earning his highest positive rating to date.

It’s been two months since Republicans regained control of the House of Representatives, and they are now trusted more than Democrats on nine out of 10 important issues regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports including the economy, taxes, health care and national security.

Republicans hold an eight-point lead over Democrats – 45% to 37% - on the Generic Congressional Ballot.

Speaking of politics, Rasmussen Reports has begun testing a number of policy statements routinely expressed in the political arena, asking voters if that position is held mostly by conservatives, mostly by liberals, if the view is shared by most Americans or if hardly anybody believes it.

Forty-six percent (46%) of voters, for example, say Ronald Reagan’s inaugural statement that "government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem" is held mostly by conservatives, but 40% recognize it is shared by most Americans.

The Obama administration has acted on the belief that increased government spending is good for the economy, but a solid plurality of voters recognize that this view is not widely shared by the American people.

Most voters have consistently said for years that tax cuts are good for the economy, but the new survey data shows voters tend to underestimate the public support for that position.

The president, former Vice President Al Gore and the United Nations, among others, argue that global warming is chiefly caused by human activity. A plurality of voters recognize that this view is held mostly by liberals rather than by most Americans.

Fifty percent (50%) of Likely Voters recognize that most Americans favor congressional term limits. Just 20% believe it is a view held mostly by conservatives. Only eight percent (8%) think that hardly anybody supports term limits.

In other surveys last week:

-- Most voters still want the national health care law repealed, and the number who are at least somewhat confident that repeal will happen is at the second highest level since the law's passage by Democrats in Congress a year ago.

-- Just 23% of Likely Voters say the country is heading in the right direction. That’s up one point from last week’s result, which was the lowest measured since Obama took office in January 2009.

-- Although today’s children are the future of our nation, just 21% of Adults say those children will be better off than their parents.

-- The United States has defense treaties with a number of nations around the globe, and Rasmussen Reports is asking Americans periodically how they feel about going to bat for these countries if they're attacked. On the latest list of nine countries, most Americans support the United States helping to defend just two of them militarily, Panama and the Bahamas.

-- What's your pain threshold? For a plurality (43%) of Americans, it hurts more to do their taxes than go to the dentist.

-- Americans continue to give their personal health positive ratings, but they are slightly less optimistic about how healthy they will be in the future.

-- Spring has sprung! And with it comes spring cleaning, at least for most Americans. Seventy-two percent (72%) of American Adults plan to clean and organize their home this spring.

-- At the same time, 75% of adults suffer from allergies or know someone who does, and 60% of that group say spring triggers them more than any other season.

-- Speaking of spring, the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Red Sox arguably made the biggest off-season moves, and fans put them ahead of the pack as potential World Series contenders going in to the 2011 Major League Baseball season.

[Doug64]

Libya's still leading:

With America bogged down in Afghanistan, the nation’s longest-running war, President Obama made a nationally televised address Monday night to explain his decision to use U.S. military forces in Libya, too.

But the president’s speech doesn’t appear to have made voters more confident about his handling of the situation in Libya, nor has it made them feel more strongly that Libya is important to U.S. national security.

Only 21% of Likely Voters think the United States has a clearly defined military mission in Libya, similar to doubts voters raised in a recent separate poll about Afghanistan. Fifty-six percent (56%) disagree and say the military does not have a clearly defined mission in Libya. Nearly one-in-four voters (23%) are not sure.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is seen by many as the chief advocate of U.S. military intervention in Libya, and voters view her slightly less favorably than they did just over a month ago.

At week’s end, 45% of voters at least somewhat approved of the president's job performance in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. Fifty-five percent (55%) disapproved.

Americans are still closely following news from the other side of the world but now are less worried about radiation from Japan’s damaged Fukushima nuclear facility reaching the United States. At the same time, however, support for the building of nuclear plants in the United States has fallen to a new low. One-third of voters now favor phasing out nuclear power in this country.

Columnist Tony Blankley criticizes the president’s Libya decision, arguing that “the humans for which our government should provide humanitarian relief and nation-building services should be limited to American humans.”

A look at our latest economic surveys gives some sense of what Blankley is talking about. The number of Americans who think the U.S. economy will spiral into a depression similar to the 1930s is at its highest level in two years.

The Rasmussen Employment Index, which measures workers’ perceptions of the labor market each month, plummeted nine points in March to its lowest level since last August. Just 18% of working Americans now report that their firms are hiring, while 25% say their firms are laying workers off.

Despite the improved employment figures released on Friday, eight-out-of-10 Americans continue to know someone who is unemployed and currently looking for work. Most adults remain pessimistic about the future job market.

Roughly one-in-four Americans now think the government should assume responsibility for those who have been unemployed for an extended period of time. Sixty-three percent (63%), however, don't see a long-term government solution to chronic unemployment.

If the overall economy is improving in 2011, small business owners aren't feeling it. Their outlook on the direction of the economy and the climate for their particular businesses has been in decline since January, and more than half of them have rated the economy as poor for 19 consecutive months, according to the March Discover(R) Small Business Watch(SM).

The Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes, which measure daily confidence in both groups, are down several points from the beginning of the year.

Voters continue to believe, as they have for years, that tax cuts and decreases in government spending are a good way to boost the economy. But they also think their elected representatives still don’t get it.

The threat of a partial government shutdown has taken center stage in the budget battle in Washington, but to most voters it’s a no-brainer. Fifty-seven percent (57%) are fine with a partial shutdown of the federal government if that’s what it takes to get deeper cuts in federal government spending.

Perhaps one explanation behind the strong support for spending cuts is the continued belief among adults nationwide that government workers have it easier than those in the private sector. Seventy percent (70%) believe workers in the private sector work harder than government workers.

Midterm elections and a change of power in the U.S. House of Representatives also haven't lowered the level of voter anger toward current government policies and unhappiness with the leaders of the two major political parties. Voters are less supportive than ever of congressional incumbents, and fewer than one-out-of-three think their own representative is the best person for the job.

In fact, the GOP election bounce appears to be over, with more American Adults in March identifying themselves as Democrats than Republicans for the first time since October. Republicans continue to lead on the Generic Congressional Ballot as they have for nearly two years, but that lead is down to four points, the smallest gap between the parties since early October.

Legislators across the country, faced with special interests fighting deep spending cuts, are casting around for new revenue sources since they know property and income tax increases are politically impossible. Rasmussen Reports decided to ask Americans about some of the new tax ideas.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has suggested a mileage tax for drivers as a way to pay for the Obama administration’s plans to spend $556 billion over six years on transportation projects. But just 15% of American Adults favor a mileage tax. Americans currently pay 18.4 cents in federal taxes on a gallon of gas, and some members of Congress have suggested raising the gas tax to pay for transportation projects. Only 17% like that idea.

So-called “sin taxes” are another popular candidate, often in the name of better public health. But Americans still aren’t buying. Fifty-nine percent (59%) oppose “sin taxes” on soda and junk foods.

The most popular of the new taxes being discussed involves marijuana. Forty-two percent (42%) of Americans say the federal government should legalize and tax marijuana as a new revenue source, but 45% disagree.

In other surveys last week:

-- Baseball has been described as “America’s national religion.” But only 29% of adults now believe baseball is still America’s national pastime.

-- Just 25% of Likely U.S. Voters say the country is heading in the right direction. That's up three points from two weeks earlier which marked the lowest level of voter confidence since Obama took office in January 2009.

-- While voters still favor repeal of the national health care law, concerns that the law will force them to change their existing health insurance are lower than a year ago.

-- With less than three weeks to go until tax day, 55% of Americans have filed their income taxes, and 43% expect to get a refund.

-- Voters still tend to think America’s legal system puts too much emphasis on the rights of the individual when it comes to national security and public safety.

-- Despite its lack of high-profile decisions in recent weeks, the number of voters who give the U.S. Supreme Court positive ratings has fallen to its lowest level in over four years. Just 30% say, generally speaking, the Supreme Court is doing a good or excellent job. Twenty-one percent (21%) rate its performance as poor, the highest negative finding since November.

-- Most Americans agree on the importance of exercise and do at least some exercising every week.

-- Elizabeth Taylor hadn't made a major film in years, but the movie icon who died recently is still viewed favorably by 66% of Americans.

[Doug64]

And now, back to the economy:

It’s the economy, stupid. Remember that one? It was the political mantra that propelled Bill Clinton into the White House. President Obama would do well to remember it now that he’s declared his candidacy for a second term.

Concern about inflation is increasing, as Americans say overwhelmingly that they are now paying more for groceries and expect to pay even more for them in the future. Eighty-seven percent (87%) say they are paying more for groceries now than they were a year ago. That’s up 12 points from last April. Looking forward, 77% think they will be paying more for groceries a year from now, well above the range over the past two years.

Rising gas prices, driven in part by the spreading political unrest in the Arab world, are adding to Americans’ concerns about inflation. Yet while most Americans agree with the president’s recent statement about the need to limit U.S. dependence on foreign oil, 60% think it’s unlikely America will reduce that dependence as much as the president would like. One-in-two Americans are ready to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to lessen the country’s dependence on foreign oil, a move the president opposes.

Despite renewed strong support for offshore drilling now that the oil leak crisis has faded in the Gulf of Mexico, the Obama administration has made clear it is has not given BP the go ahead to resume drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Now the number of voters who believe protecting the environment gets in the way of a growing economy has reached its highest level in just over two years.

Consumer confidence fell for the second straight month in March, as high gas prices correlated with discouraging consumer views about the direction of the U.S. economy, according to the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor.

The Rasmussen Consumer Index, which measures the economic confidence of consumers on a daily basis, fell for the fifth straight day on Saturday. Consumer confidence is down 13 points from three months ago. The companion Rasmussen Investor Index, which measures the economic confidence of investors on a daily basis, is down 15 points from three months ago.

Twenty-five percent (25%) of adult consumers believe the U.S. economy is getting better these days. Fifty-four percent (54%) believe it is getting worse. Among investors, 31% say the economy is getting better, while 48% take the opposite view. When 2011 began, investors were evenly divided as to whether the economy was getting better or worse.

Yet while most voters have said consistently for years that lower taxes and government spending cuts are good ways to boost the economy, members of the president’s party are resisting the deeper reductions in spending sought by Republicans. A partial shutdown of the federal government is a distinct possibility.

But while voters like the idea of big spending cuts, they don’t think even the GOP cuts will make much of a difference. Only 26% of voters feel that the spending cuts proposed by congressional Republicans will significantly reduce federal spending and deficits.

In the ongoing budget-cutting debate, some congressional Democrats have accused their Republican opponents of being held captive by the Tea Party movement, but voters like the Tea Party more than Congress. Forty-eight percent (48%) say when it comes to the major issues facing the country, their views are closer to those of the average Tea Party member than to those of the average member of Congress. Just 22% say their views are closest to those of the average congressman.

Voters continue to view the Republican agenda in Congress as more mainstream than the agenda of the Democrats. But only one-in-four voters think the average member of either party shares the same ideology they do.

Sixty percent (60%) of voters expect the partisan bickering in Washington, D.C. to get even worse over the coming year.

One of the areas Republicans hope to cut is food stamps by adding a work requirement similar to the one that was added several years ago to general welfare payments. Fifty-five percent (55%) of Americans agree that the government should require those who receive food stamps to work.

But then many question the effectiveness of government anti-poverty programs and believe they cause more of the problem they're supposed to lessen. Despite billions and billions of taxpayer dollars spent to fight poverty, most Americans believe there are more poor people in this country today than there were 10 years ago.

Another factor undoubtedly driving the congressional budget debate is the belief held by roughly two-out-of-three voters that Americans are overtaxed. Nearly as many say any federal tax increase should be subject to a vote by the American people. Complicating things for would-be budget cutters, however, is the view held by even more that any changes in Social Security and Medicare also should be voted on by the public.

While a majority of voters says the average American shells out 30% or more of their income in taxes, most believe they really should pay no more than 20%. In truth, Americans now pay approximately 28% of their total income in taxes.

And no new taxes, please. Americans are used to being taxed for goods and services they purchase in person, but they remain opposed to carrying that over to the online world.

As for the president’s signature legislative achievement of his first two years in office, most voters still favor the repeal of the national health care law and believe it will increase the federal deficit and drive up the cost of health care. Most think the quality of care will suffer, too.

On the foreign policy front, support for the U.S. military mission in Libya and the president’s handling of the situation is declining. Thirty-nine percent (39%) of voters now agree with Obama’s decision to take military action in Libya, down from 45% two weeks ago just after the mission began. At the same time, only 37% rate the president’s handling of the situation in Libya as good or excellent. That’s down six points from a week earlier just after the president’s nationally televised address to the nation explaining his reasons for helping Libyan rebels overthrow longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Fewer voters than ever give Obama positive grades on his handling of national security issues.

Only 24% of voters now say the country is heading in the right direction. Since Obama assumed office in January 2009, confidence in the nation’s current course has ranged from a low of 22%, reached three weeks ago, to a high of 35% measured in early April 2009.

Just over one-quarter of voters now say they share the same political views as the president.

The number of voters who Strongly Disapprove of Obama’s performance as measured by the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll inched up a point in March - for the second month in a row - to 40%. This figure has stayed in a narrow range of 37% to 44% since July 2009. In March, the number who Strongly Approve of Obama’s performance dropped a point to 25%. By comparison, 43% Strongly Approved of the president's performance in January 2009, the month he took office.

In other words, the early signs suggest the president could be facing a very competitive reelection contest.

In other surveys last week:

-- Republicans hold a five-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot. That’s up one point from the week before which marked the GOP's smallest lead since early October 2010.

-- Despite several high-profile airline emergencies in the past week, Americans express strong confidence in the safety of air travel in the United States.

-- One of those incidents involved a Southwest Airlines plane that suddenly developed a hole in its fuselage, but Southwest remains the favorite among four top air carriers as far as Americans are concerned. Among those who travel by air once a month or more, however, it’s the least favorite of the group.

-- Professional athletes are often held to a different standard than other famous people because they are looked up to by children. But only 17% of Adults think professional athletes are good role models for young people today.

-- If media reports are accurate that Katie Couric will leave her post as anchor of the CBS Evening News in June, she will exit with virtually the same favorable ratings she had when she started the job in 2006. Forty-seven percent (47%) have at least a somewhat favorable opinion of Couric, while 38% view her unfavorably.

[Doug64]

Okay, so I'm really late this time - busy, and I lost track.

Talk, talk, talk. That’s apparently all voters expect out of Washington, DC, because they don’t anticipate serious budget solutions any time soon.

Just 31% of Likely Voters, in fact, think it is at least somewhat likely that President Obama and congressional Republicans will reach an agreement to significantly cut long-term government spending trends before the 2012 elections. But then most voters also believe neither side is likely to propose a serious plan to deal with federal spending and deficit problems.

That’s despite Republican Congressman Paul Ryan’s new plan that claims to cut $4 trillion from the federal deficit over the next decade. The proposal has Washington, DC abuzz, but 47% of voters don’t know enough about it to voice an opinion. Thirty-one percent (31%) accurately believe the proposal presented by Ryan calls for major changes in defense, Social Security and Medicare which together account for over half of federal spending.

Ryan’s plan prompted the president to come back with a budget-cutting proposal of his own this past week, but his plan does not include changes in the budget-busting Medicare and Social Security programs. Forty-eight percent (48%) of voters now believe it is necessary to make major changes in defense, Social Security and Medicare to make truly significant, long-term cuts in government spending. Thirty-seven percent (37%) don’t believe changes of this kind are necessary.

The president’s new deficit-reduction plan doesn’t even try to project a time when the federal budget will be balanced. Ryan’s Republican alternative puts a balanced budget at least 25 years away. No wonder just 30% of voters think it is at least somewhat likely that the federal budget will be balanced for even a single year during their lifetimes. Only nine percent (9%) say it’s Very Likely. Interestingly, voters ages 18 to 29, those who will live the longest, are even more skeptical about the chances for a balanced budget than are those who are older.

With unemployment claims jumping last week, signaling continued weakness in the nation's economy, it's no surprise that voters still rate the economy as the most important issue they vote on. By the same token, voters remain worried the government will try to do too much in response to the bad economy rather than not enough.

As far as Americans are concerned, there is at least one thing the government could do that would help - enforcing laws against illegal immigration. Sixty-one percent (61%) of Adults say if immigration laws were enforced, there would be less poverty in America. That’s up from 45% four years ago.

There were more mixed signals from the economy this past week. Most Americans (54%) continue to 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.

Confidence in the stability of the U.S. banking system is up a bit this month but still remains at discouraging levels. While 47% now are at least somewhat confident in the stability of the U.S. banking system, that compares to 64% in September 2008 just as the financial meltdown on Wall Street was becoming evident.

The Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes changed little over the past week but remain down from the first of the year. A new Scott Rasmussen analysis suggests that it is currently impossible to identify with confidence a single factor driving consumer confidence. Given the historic record, gas prices and the political debate over federal spending and deficits are prime suspects. Events in the coming months are likely to provide some additional clarity.

Speaking of upcoming events, 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 the president, Obama 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.

The numbers show that Mike Huckabee runs even with Obama at this point. Mitt Romney, who just formally entered the race, trails the president by five, 45% to 40%. Others who trail by single digits include Ron Paul and Haley Barbour. Candidates trailing by double digits include Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Tim Pawlenty, Mitch Daniels, Herman Cain and Jon Huntsman.

At week’s end, there was little change in Obama’s job approval rating as measured by the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll: 48 at least somewhat approved of the president's performance, while 51% disapproved.

Republicans hold a six-point lead over Democrats – 44% to 38% - on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending April 10.

A majority (51%) 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.

Confidence in America's conduct of the war on terror has fallen to its lowest level in four-and-a-half years. Just 32% of voters now believe the United States and its allies are winning the war on terror, the most pessimistic assessment since October 2006.

With Japan now admitting its ongoing nuclear plant crisis is as bad as Chernobyl, concern about radiation from that plant reaching the United States has risen, and Americans are more worried about the overall impact on the U.S. economy. Most voters also remain concerned about the safety of nuclear power plants in this country, but support for building new plants in America appears to have rebounded slightly.

In other surveys last week:

-- Twenty-three percent (23%) of Likely U.S. Voters say the country is heading in the right direction. Since President Obama assumed office in January 2009, confidence in the nation’s current course has ranged from a low of 22%, reached a month ago, to a high of 35% measured in early April 2009.

-- 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.

-- 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.

-- The hacking of Epsilon, a major online marketing firm, is just the latest online security breach, but most Americans remain confident in the safety of their financial information on the Internet.

-- Just 28% of Americans say they know someone who has received an organ transplant, but they’re evenly divided when asked if they are an organ donor: 48% say they are, while just as many (48%) are not.

-- A Chicago public school now prohibits students from bringing lunch from home in an effort to promote healthier eating, but Americans strongly reject that idea. Not only does an overwhelming majority (92%) believe children should be allowed to bring lunch to school, but 59% also think lunches from home are healthier than ones bought in a school cafeteria.

-- The Who's last major hit was a catchy tune called "Who Are You," and it might well pertain to most members of a presidential Cabinet. Rasmussen Reports ask voters about four Cabinet members over the past week-and-a-half. Seventy percent (70%) had no opinion of Commerce Secretary Gary Locke, and 75% drew a blank on Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis. Eighty percent (80%) don’t know enough about Eric Shinseki, secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, to venture an opinion of him, while 81% have no opinion of Shaun Donovan, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

-- American pizza-eaters rate Pizza Hut number one among pizza chains, closely followed by Papa John’s. But nearly one-out-of-five adults say they rarely or never eat pizza no matter who makes it.

-- 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. Thirty-two percent (32%) have at least a somewhat favorable impression of Beck, while 35% view him unfavorably.

[eugenekop]

Its pretty amazing that Ron Paul trails only in single digits after Obama.

[Doug64]

I'd like to say it's just name recognition and an "anybody but Obama" attitude, but considering the amount of coverage he received in 2008 that's unlikely, darn it.

[eugenekop]

I'm not very versed in American politics, so maybe you can enlighten me. Why is there the "anyone but Obama" attitude? What is so unpopular that Obama did? And if that is indeed the attitude, how come Obama gets his stable 45%?

[Doug64]

I didn't say there was an "anyone but Obama" attitude, I said I'd like to be able to blame Ron Paul's popularity on it, but can't.

[Doug64]

And on time this week:

It was a week for looking back, but when Americans did look ahead, they didn’t like much of what they saw.

A year ago last Wednesday, an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig marked the beginning of the most devastating oil spill ever in the Gulf of Mexico. Most voters (54%) now think the cleanup from that spill has been fairly successful and appear less concerned about the long-term effect on the environment. But voters still give low grades to both the federal government and the companies responsible for their response to the spill.

At the same time, support for deepwater oil drilling has reached its highest level since the Gulf oil spill began. Fifty-nine percent (59%) now say deepwater drilling should be allowed. Twenty-two percent (22%) oppose deepwater drilling, while another 20% are undecided.

Support for continuing U.S. military operations in Libya is holding steady from two weeks ago after a drop-off in support from just after the mission began last month. But voters remain almost evenly divided over U.S. military involvement in the Libyan political crisis.

However, most voters now expect the U.S. military’s role in Libya to last beyond this year. Only 36% believe it is even somewhat likely that U.S. military involvement in Libya will be over by the end of the year. Fifty-five percent (55%) hold the opposite view and think the U.S. role is unlikely to end by December 31.

For Christians worldwide, this Easter weekend celebrates the ultimate sacrifice 2,000 years ago. Seventy-eight percent (78%) of Americans believe Jesus Christ to be the son of God who came to Earth to die for our sins and 74% believe he rose from the dead.

In addition to being Good Friday, marking the day on which Christ was crucified, this past Friday was the 42nd time that Earth Day has been celebrated. Eighteen percent (18%) planned to celebrate the occasion and Americans are closely divided over whether the informal annual holiday has raised the environmental consciousness of their fellow countrymen. But they strongly believe improving the environment occurs on a personal level. However, just 27% of Adults say Americans are being selfish by putting their economic concerns ahead of the fight against global warming.

Speaking of economic concerns, both short and long-term confidence in the U.S. housing market continue to fall, with homeowners now expressing the highest level of pessimism in two years. Only 39% of homeowners now think that the value of their home will go up over the next five years. In April 2009, 55% expected their house’s value to rise in five year’s time.

Just one-out-of-two Americans (50%) say their home is worth more than what they still owe on their mortgage. That’s down from 61% in December 2008. Perhaps the most stunning data point is that even among people who bought their home more than five years ago, just 52% believe their home is worth more than the mortgage.

Only 51% now believe buying a home is a family’s best investment. That’s down from 73% in February 2009. Just once before – in August of last year - has the belief in home ownership been this low.

At week’s end, consumer and investor confidence as measured by the Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes stabilized at levels just above 2011 lows. The indexes fell following Standard and Poor’s announcement that it has shifted the U.S. credit outlook from stable to negative

Most voters still blame the nation's economic problems on the George W. Bush years, but they also continue to trust their own economic judgment more than that of President Obama.

Twenty-two percent (22%) of Likely U.S. Voters now say the country is heading in the right direction. That ties the lowest number of Obama’s presidency. Seventy percent (70%) say the country is heading down the wrong track.

Thirty-five percent (35%) of voters now think the president’s leadership style is too cooperative. That's the highest finding since December 2009. Only 22% believe the president is too confrontational, while 31% characterize his leadership style as about right.

As of Friday, the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll found that 47% of voters at least somewhat approve of the president's performance, while 53% disapprove. That marks no significant change from recent weeks.

Obama leads Donald Trump by 15 percentage points – 49% to 34% - in a hypothetical 2012 match-up, but the president is unable to top the 50% level of support even against an opponent some are deriding as a joke. Voters strongly prefer a presidential candidate with both government and private sector experience.

Voters aren’t unhappy with just the president, though. Ratings for Congress have fallen to the lowest level since late 2008. Only nine percent (9%) now say Congress is doing a good or excellent job.

Republicans hold a just three-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending April 17, 2011. That ties the narrowest gap between the two in months.

One continuing area of unhappiness with Congress is immigration policy. Nearly two-thirds of voters still believe border control should be the top priority in the fight against illegal immigration, but they also continue to support a welcoming immigration policy.

Several Republican senators are seeking to amend the law that grants full U.S. citizenship to children born to illegal immigrants in this country, and 61% of voters agree that a child born in the United States to a woman who is here illegally should not automatically become a U.S. citizen. That’s the highest level of support for changing the existing law found in five years of Rasmussen Reports surveying.

In other surveys last week:

-- A majority of voters continues to favor repeal of the national health care law, but the number who Strongly Favor it has fallen to a new low. So has the number of voters who see the law as bad for the country.

-- In an effort to enhance online security and privacy, the Obama administration has proposed giving Americans a single ID for all Internet sales and banking activity, but most Americans want nothing to do with it if the government holds the information.

-- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates are the most popular and best-known members of the president’s Cabinet. Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security secretary, is nearly as well-known but not nearly as well-liked. The rest of the Cabinet, despite the major roles they play in shaping and carrying out government policy, are unknown to large numbers of voters.

-- Most Americans have no problem with money on the table in a friendly game of poker but have decidedly mixed feelings if that game is shifted to the Internet. When asked if individuals should be allowed to play poker or other games for money on the Internet, 41% of adults say yes, and 42% say no.

-- Monday was Tax Day, and although the deadline was pushed back three days, 17% of Americans still had not filed their income taxes by then.

[Doug64]

And the first time the next presidential election leads:

The names have it. At this stage of the presidential campaign process, name-recognition is what it’s largely all about.

That helps explain why likely Republican primary voters now give billionaire developer and reality TV star Donald Trump the edge over traditional candidates like Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee in the race to be the GOP’s presidential nominee in 2012. Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin and ex-House Speaker Newt Gingrich are tied for fourth place.

If Trump, Huckabee and Palin end up not running or stumble in the early going, New Jersey’s tough-guy Governor Chris Christie and former Massachusetts Governor Romney are nearly dead-even as far as likely primary voters are concerned.

But what if voters look for anybody but the front-runners? Given a list of nine dark horses who are possible contenders for the party’s 2012 presidential nomination, 27% of likely primary voters like Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachman. Former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania earns 12% of the vote, while Georgia businessman Herman Cain picks up nine percent (9%).

Separate polling found that President Obama earns 42% to 49% support against all of the top Republican contenders, including Trump, Romney and Huckabee, suggesting that the contest remains a referendum on the incumbent’s performance.

Unfortunately for the president, just 21% of Likely U.S. Voters say the country is heading in the right direction. Confidence in the nation's course has now reached the lowest point of the Obama presidency.

Voter confidence that the nation’s best days are still to come also has fallen to its lowest level ever. Just 31% believe America’s best days are in the future, the lowest result found in polling since late 2006. Fifty-three percent (53%) believe America’s best days are in the past.

Early in the week, the International Monetary Fund projected that China will surpass the United States as the world's number one economy by 2016, and 78% of Americans think that’s at least somewhat likely, with 57% who say it is Very Likely. Seventy-eight percent (78%) now rate China a bigger threat to the United States economically than militarily.

One of the worries Americans have about China is what the Asian giant is likely to do with the large amount of U.S. debt that it owns. The economic debate in Washington is focused these days on raising the country’s existing debt ceiling which Democrats say is necessary to meet our financial obligations and maintain our economic standing in the world. In exchange, Republicans want a commitment for major spending reductions.

While voters aren’t sure about the short-term implications of the debt ceiling debate, they recognize that the official figures understate the magnitude of the problem. Fifty percent (50%) realize that the official debt ceiling of approximately $14 trillion does not include the cost of commitments the federal government has made for future retirement, Social Security and Medicare benefits. When the cost of these future commitments is included, the total debt is somewhere in the range of $70 trillion or higher.

However, very few voters are aware that most of today’s federal budget deficit is actually due to spending commitments made by Congress in the 1960s and ’70s.

At week’s end, the Rasmussen Consumer and Investor Indexes found that only 23% of Adult Consumers think the U.S. economy is getting better, while 57% say it's getting worse. Among investors, 27% feel economic conditions in the country are improving, but a majority (54%) disagrees.

In part to encourage more economic confidence on the home front, Ben Bernanke held the first-ever press conference by a chairman of the Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday and plans even more. Many voters think this increased transparency by the nation's chief banker will be beneficial to the economy, but they still have mixed feelings about Bernanke himself.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is another key economic player in the Obama administration, but most voters continue not to like him or know who he is. They feel the same way about Attorney General Eric Holder.

Another area where many see America as growing less competitive in the world is education. Voters overwhelmingly believe that taxpayers are not getting a good return on what they spend on public education, and just one-in-three voters think spending more will make a difference.

Most voters also still favor repeal of the national health care law, the president’s signature legislative achievement to date, and believe it will drive up the federal deficit even as official Washington steps up the debate on how to cut the government’s massive debt.

Voters are more narrowly divided when asked whether the federal government should set health care standards for the entire country. Forty-one percent (41%) believe the federal government should establish a single standard for all health care regulations. However, slightly more voters (45%) say states should be allowed to establish their own individual standards for health care regulation.

With a growing shortage of doctors projected for the years ahead, a number of states are considering or have already passed legislation that allows nurse practitioners to step in for physicians in routine cases. Sixty-seven percent (67%) of voters favor training and licensing of nurse practitioners to expand the level of routine medical care they provide. Only 20% oppose such training and licensing.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Friday found that 48% of voters at least somewhat approve of Obama’s performance, while 51% disapprove. There’s been little change in these job approval ratings for months.

At the same time, a large number of voters share Mark Twain’s view that “there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.” A plurality (43%) of voters believe most members of Congress are corrupt. Only 27% disagree and doubt that most national legislators are that dishonorable. Thirty percent (30%) are not sure.

Republicans held just a two-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending April 24, 2011. That’s the narrowest gap between the two parties since October 2009.

In other surveys last week:

-- Half of adults nationwide believe hate is growing in this country, but Americans are more narrowly divided when it comes to punishing so-called hate crimes. Just 28% say it would be a good idea for United States to ban hate speech like some European nations and Canada do.

-- Most voters (67%) continue to believe U.S. society is fair and decent, but far fewer feel the president agrees with them.

-- Fifty percent (50%) of Americans support Title IX legislation to ensure gender equity in college athletics, but adults strongly oppose the government requiring colleges to match the percentage of women athletes to the number of women on campus.

-- The United States has military defense treaties with over 50 other nations. Rasmussen Reports has been periodically asking Americans how they feel about defending some of these treaty countries if they are attacked. On the most recent list of nine countries, including New Zealand, Belgium and Brazil, Americans don’t feel strongly about defending any of them.

-- The Justice Department recently cracked down on three top online poker websites, but Americans still appear to have more faith in the private sector than in the government when it comes to gambling on the Internet.

-- Just 34% of American Adults said they were at least somewhat likely to watch Friday’s wedding of Prince William of England and Kate Middleton. Fifty-eight percent (58%) said the media is giving too much attention to the nuptials.

-- Twenty-two percent (22%) of Americans, in fact, think England should abolish its monarchy. Fifty-one percent (51%) disagree and say the royal family is still an important symbol for Great Britain. Another 27% are not sure.

-- Sixty-one percent (61%) of Americans planned to attend church on Easter Sunday. Overall, 44% consider Easter to be one of the nation’s most important holidays, while 13% consider it one of the least important. Thirty-nine percent (39%) rank it somewhere in between.

[sazerac]

I was happy to see Donald Trump getting 74 % of the republican vote. I think people like his plans for new schools in New Orleans, instead of in foreign countries. Or maybe it's because he is a very daring national hero.

[Doug64]

So what do Americans in general think of the killing of bin Laden and the WoT?

Osama bin Laden went down, and President Obama has gone up – in the polls, that is.

Americans overwhelmingly endorse the president’s decision to kill bin Laden and don’t believe a greater effort should have been made to bring the terrorist mastermind to trial. Eighty-six percent (86%) of Adults approve of the president’s decision authorizing the mission to kill bin Laden. Only 14% say the special operations forces involved in the mission should have tried harder to capture bin Laden so that he could have been given a fair trial.

A month ago, voter confidence in U.S. efforts in the War on Terror had fallen to its lowest level in over four years, but that confidence has soared following the weekend killing of bin Laden. Fifty-five percent (55%) of voters now believe the United States and its allies are winning the War on Terror, the highest level of confidence measured since early February 2009. Voters have only rarely expressed this much confidence in seven years of surveying on the question.

Voters are also much more confident that the country is safer today than it was before the September 11, 2001 terror attacks that bin Laden orchestrated.

Americans still remain highly concerned about the possibility of a terrorist attack in the United States in the near future, but that concern has not increased because of the killing of bin Laden. Most also feel bin Laden’s death will not worsen U.S. relations with the Muslim world.

However, Pakistan where bin Laden was found may be a loser following the weekend’s events. Eighty-four percent (84%) of Americans think it’s at least somewhat likely that high-level officials in the Pakistani government knew where bin Laden was hiding. That includes 57% who say it is Very Likely they knew. Just 15% now feel that the United States should continue military and financial aid to Pakistan.

The president, on the other hand, has clearly benefited at least in the short term from the killing of bin Laden.

In April, Obama’s full-month Presidential Approval Index rating was –15, showing no change from March but down four points from January. But by week’s end, the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll found the lowest level of Strong Disapproval for Obama since July 2009. Overall, it was his best Approval Index rating in three months.

Grades for the president’s national security performance also bounced higher, but ratings for his handling of economic issues held relatively steady. This highlights the president’s longer-term problem since voters continue to regard the economy as the number one issue in terms of how they vote, well above national security.

More than seven years ago, U.S. troops captured Saddam Hussein at a time when Iraq was the central front in the War on Terror, and Hussein was public enemy number one. That capture led to an immediate increase in consumer and investor confidence.

The Rasmussen Consumer/Investor Indexes show a similar response this week. By Friday, the consumer index was up seven points since the announcement of bin Laden’s death, and the investor index was up nine points in the same period. But both are still down from three months ago. Only 10% of investors rate the U.S. economy as good or excellent these days, showing little change from Sunday. Forty-seven percent (47%) give the U.S. economy a poor rating, down six points from Sunday.

April was a turbulent month for consumers, according to the Discover U.S. Spending Monitor, but ultimately changed little from March.

The Rasmussen Employment Index, which measures workers’ perceptions of the labor market each month, regained five points in April after falling to a recent low in March. Yet despite April’s gain, confidence in the labor market is still down from the beginning of 2011. Just 19% of working Americans now report that their firms are hiring, while 25% say their firms are laying workers off. It has been nearly three years since the number reporting that their firms are hiring has topped the number reporting layoffs.

Voters continue to believe tax cuts and decreases in government spending will benefit the nation’s economy. But most also still think government spending will go up under the Obama administration.

Senate Republicans are calling for side-by-side votes on the president’s 2012 budget proposal and the House-approved debt reduction plan by Republican Congressman Paul Ryan. While opposition to Ryan’s proposal is increasing, even more voters are saying no to the president’s. Just 30% favor Obama’s budget proposal, while 50% oppose it. Twenty percent (20%) are undecided.]

By comparison, slightly fewer voters (26%) favor Ryan’s proposal, but fewer (34%) also oppose it. A sizable 40% still don’t know enough about the plan to have any opinion of it.

Despite the recent first-ever press conference by a Federal Reserve Board chairman, voters continue to view the Fed’s performance with skepticism and are evenly divided when asked whether the Fed chairman or the president have more clout when it comes to the economy.

For the first time since Democrats in Congress passed the national health care bill in March of last year, however, support for repeal of the measure has fallen below 50%. Yet most voters still believe free market competition rather than more government regulation is the better way to reduce the cost of health care in America.

As for challengers to the president’s reelection, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie appears to have the solidest support when likely Republican primary voters are asked who they would definitely vote for now. Despite the media coverage he’s been getting, more primary voters say they would definitely vote against Donald Trump than for him.

In fact, just 15% of all voters think Trump is seriously running for president. Trump’s unfavorable ratings have been going up, and 62% of voters believe the media is paying too much attention to his interest in running for the presidency.

Most voters continue to feel they have very little in common ideologically with the average member of Congress. But Republicans in Congress are now seen as more conservative than they were a month ago. The honeymoon period may be over for House Speaker John Boehner, too, with his favorable marks falling sharply from last month's high.

Republicans held a three-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending May 1, 2011. That was up one point from the previous week which marked the narrowest gap between the parties since October 2009.

In April, the number of unaffiliated voters in America grew for the fourth straight month. Now, 34.8% of American Adults consider themselves to be Republicans, 33.5% say they are Democrats, and 31.7% say they’re not affiliated with either major party. The April results represent the fifth time in the past six months that there have been more Republicans than Democrats in the nation. They also mark the lowest number of Democrats ever recorded in Rasmussen Reports tracking since November 2002.

In other surveys last week:

-- Twenty-five percent (25%) of Likely U.S. Voters say the country is heading in the right direction. But this survey was completed just before the bin Laden news became public.

-- Seventy-two percent (72%) of Americans say it’s at least somewhat likely that the price of gas will rise above $5 a gallon by July 1, up 14 points from two months ago.

-- A plurality (43%) of Americans say high gas prices have had a significant impact on their daily lives. Many also say they are driving less now than they were a year ago.

-- Voters strongly believe the government can do something to lower rising gas prices, but they have mixed feelings about dropping the federal gas tax: 44% say the government should eliminate the federal gasoline tax until prices at the pump come down, but 35% disagree.

-- Forty-six percent (46%) of Americans still think 21 is the proper drinking age, but support is up slightly to 35% for dropping it to 18. Perhaps not surprisingly, younger adults are more enthusiastic about lowering the drinking age than their elders.

-- Americans want something brewed on American soil when it comes to beer, and their top choice is Budweiser. Sixty-nine percent (69%) of American beer drinkers choose domestic beers over imported ones. Twenty-two percent (22%) like imported beers more.