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28% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

Twenty-eight percent (28%) of Likely U.S. Voters now think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey for the week ending June 18.

This finding is up one point from 27% the week before and down from 30% two weeks ago, which was the first time in nearly two months that this finding had edged out of the 20s. From late December through the beginning of March, 30% or more of voters said every week that the country was heading in the right direction after generally being in the mid- to high 20s weekly since mid-June 2013.

Sixty-five percent (65%) now believe the nation is headed down the wrong track, unchanged from a week ago.

A year ago at this time, 27% felt the country was heading in the right direction, while 65% thought it was on the wrong track.

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The national telephone survey of 2,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports from June 14-18, 2015. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Eighty-one percent (81%) of Republicans and 72% of voters not affiliated with either major political party think the country is on the wrong track. Democrats are evenly divided. 

Most voters of all ages agree the country is headed in the wrong direction, but voters 40 and over believe that even more strongly than younger voters.

Sixty-nine percent (69%) of whites believe the country is headed down the wrong track, a view shared by 49% of blacks and 58% of other minority voters. 

The more money one earns, the more likely he or she is to think the country is heading in the right direction. 

Nearly 20 years ago, Bill Clinton declared the era of big government over. Two decades later, voters wish that were true.

Voters see an overly powerful government as a bigger danger in the world than an under-powered one.

Voters say that economic growth is more important than economic fairness and they give a thumbs up to policies that expand the economy over policies that promote fairness.

When it comes to health care reform, voters continue to think an overall reduction in costs is more important than guaranteeing that everyone has insurance -- but they would prefer that the government keep their hands off and leave it up to some healthy competition to solve the problem.

Americans say they want change, but they don’t want to pay for it.

Most voters agree that racial identity should be based on birth, not preference, but black voters are less critical than others of Rachel Dolezal, a white woman who identifies as black who recently resigned from her post at the NAACP.

Yesterday was Father’s Day, and while voters don’t put much importance on the holiday itself, they still strongly believe in the importance of fatherhood.

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The national telephone survey of 2,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports from June 14-18, 2015. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

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