9.26.2011

Americans finally develop healthy distrust of government

Well, it only took an economic collapse, two foreign occupation quagmires, multiple crony capitalism scandals, TSA goons groping children, the War on Drugs, taxpayer bailouts of Wall Street crooks, the ATF arming the Mexican drug cartels, clueless Fed policymakers, Greece-sized fiscal deficits, etc.

But Americans finally distrust and dislike their rotten, corrupt, intrusive, and incompetent government.
  • 82% of Americans disapprove of the way Congress is handling its job.
  • 69% say they have little or no confidence in the legislative branch of government, an all-time high and up from 63% in 2010.
  • 57% have little or no confidence in the federal government to solve domestic problems, exceeding the previous high of 53% recorded in 2010 and well exceeding the 43% who have little or no confidence in the government to solve international problems.
  • 53% have little or no confidence in the men and women who seek or hold elected office.
  • Americans believe, on average, that the federal government wastes 51 cents of every tax dollar, similar to a year ago, but up significantly from 46 cents a decade ago and from an average 43 cents three decades ago.
  • 49% of Americans believe the federal government has become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. In 2003, less than a third (30%) believed this.

The Founding Fathers would be proud.

3 comments:

Doo Doo Econ said...

By proxy I would infer that people do not trust the elite "education" of the east coast intelligencia.

Jr Deputy Accountant said...

Yeah but now that the NFL is back on, I bet they've already forgotten how pissed off they were.

Negocios Loucos said...

GO BEARS!

Happy Super Tuesday!