Voter Concern About Economy Hits Highest Level In Over Two Years

With a new Congress scheduled to swing into action this week, the number of voters who rate the economy as a Very Important issue has reached its highest level since early August 2008.

A new national telephone survey finds that 87% of Likely U.S. Voters view the economy this way, well above the importance they place on any other issue on a list of 10 regularly tracked by Rasmussen Reports. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

The new finding is up five points from 82% in late October and has consistently been the issue voters place the highest level of importance on since regular tracking began several years ago.

Republicans will have majority control of the House in the new session of Congress, and voters continue to trust the GOP more than Democrats on the issue of the economy as they have since June of last year. 

Voters trust Republicans more on seven of 10 issues, with the two breaking even on the issue of health care which earns the second highest level of concern: 71% of voters describe it as a Very Important issue.

Separate polling finds that voters still strongly support repeal of the national health care law passed by Democrats last March, to update and in mid-December, a majority of voters for the first time since March said they believe the law will be repealed by the new Congress. 

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The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on December 29-30, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.