Deficit Not Hurting Obama Ratings, Yet

Whether people blame President Obama for growing deficits or not, his job approval rating is holding its own. A new Bloomberg poll of 1,004 adults conducted between September 10 and September 14 shows Obama with a 56% job approval rating. The same survey says that 61% of those asked still feel favorably toward him.

The one factor that undermine’s confidence in the president is the growing deficit. The most shocking result of the survey is that “Americans consider the deficit such a problem that a majority, 62 percent, say they would be willing to risk a longer-lasting recession to avoid more government spending.” It would be hard to find a gauge that demonstrates the mistrust of federal intervention than this one. People are willing to suffer and face high unemployment in exchange for securing what they think is a better economic future.

Almost every section of the poll results points in the same direction. A government that is trillions of dollars in the red is a government which threaten’s the nation’s prosperity in the next decade. People want the Treasury to balance its books the way that most citizens have had to. Perhaps the recession has taught them that living beyond one’s means is not sustainable.

Douglas A. McIntrye