75% Are Angry At Government’s Current Policies

Rasmussen Reports
Feb. 10, 2010

Voters are madder than ever at the current policies of the federal government.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 75% of likely voters now say they are at least somewhat angry at the government's current policies, up four points from late November and up nine points since September. The overall figures include 45% who are Very Angry, also a nine-point increase since September.

Just 19% now say they're not very or not at all angry at the government's policies, down eight points from the previous survey and down 11 from September. That 19% includes only eight percent (8%) who say they're not angry at all and 11% who are not very angry.

Part of the frustration is likely due to the belief of 60% of voters that neither Republican political leaders nor Democratic political leaders have a good understanding of what is needed today. That finding is identical to the view last September, just after the tumultuous congressional town hall meetings the month before. But only 52% felt this way in November.

Americans are united in the belief "that the political system is broken, that most politicians are corrupt, and that neither major political party has the answers," Scott Rasmussen explains in his new book, In Search of Self-Governance.

Male voters are definitely angrier than women. Voters earning $60,000 to $100,000 per year are more frustrated than those in any other income group.

Eighty-nine percent (89%) of Republicans are angry with the government's current policies, which is perhaps not surprising with the White House and Congress both in Democratic hands. But 78% of voters not affiliated with either major party agree.

Sixty-one percent (61%) of Democrats share that anger, but Republicans are three times as likely as Democrats to be Very Angry.

The divide between the Political Class and Mainstream voters, however, is remarkable. Eighty-eight percent (88%) of Mainstream voters are angry, but 84% of the Political Class are not. Those numbers include 57% of Mainstream voters who are Very Angry and 51% of the Political Class who are not angry at all.

But then 68% of Mainstream voters don't think the leaders of either major political party have a good understanding of what the country needs today. Sixty-one percent (61%) of the Political Class disagree.

By comparison, the majority of Republicans, Democrats and unaffiliateds don't believe the current political leaders have a good handle on what is needed today.

Older voters and higher-income voters share that belief most strongly.

Democratic Senate candidates are struggling in a number of states in part because of unhappiness with the government's policies, including the controversial national health care plan. Opposition to that plan played a key part in the GOP upset Senate win last month in Massachusetts.

Most voters oppose the now-seemingly-derailed health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats for months. They continue to have very mixed feelings about the $787-billion economic stimulus plan approved by Congress last February.

Looking back, most voters still don't approve of the multi-billion-dollar government bailouts of the financial industry and troubled automakers General Motors and Chrysler.

Forty-nine percent (49%) worry the government will try to do too much to help the economy, while 39% fear it won't do enough.

As the economy continues to stumble along, 59% of voters believe cutting taxes is better than increasing government spending as a job-creation tool, but 72% expect the nation's elected politicians to increase spending instead.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of Americans say the size of the federal budget deficit is due more to the unwillingness of politicians to cut government spending than to the reluctance of taxpayers to pay more in taxes.

Voters have consistently said for months that they have more confidence in their own economic judgment than that of either the president or Congress.