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BUSINESS

Voters Still Think Bush To Blame for Bad Economy

Voters may question how President Obama is handling the economy and think his new budget doesn't cut deeply enough, but most still blame his predecessor for the problems he's trying to deal with.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters say the nation’s current economic problems are due to the recession which began under the administration of President George W. Bush, unchanged from a month ago. Forty-one percent (41%) disagree and say Obama’s policies are more to blame. (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

Aside from early June, when voters were virtually evenly divided on this question, a majority has blamed the Bush administration for the recession since regular tracking on the question began in late May 2009. 

 Still, 61% of voters trust their own judgment more than Obama’s when it comes to the economic issues affecting the nation.  Just 24% trust the president more, while 16% are not sure.  These findings also have shown little change since mid-June 2009.  But the number of voters who place more faith in their own judgment is up 12 points from early February of that same year, less than a month after the president’s inauguration.

(Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook.

The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on February 18-19, 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.

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