Nearly half of U.S. voters (49%) say Barack Obama is politically more liberal than they are, as the new president begins to tackle the country’s economic problems with a massive spending-and-tax-cut bill.

Nine percent (9%) believe he is more conservative, and 38% rate his political views about the same as their own, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey. Five percent (5%) are not sure.

Thirty-five percent (35%) of voters also say Obama is more liberal than most Democrats in Congress, but 31% disagree. Thirty-three percent (33%) are not sure.

Democrats themselves see it the other way around. Thirty percent of Democratic voters say most Democrats in Congress are more liberal than the president, while 25% disagree and 45% are not sure. Forty-nine percent (49%) of GOP voters say Obama is more liberal than most Democratic Congress members, but 32% disagree. Unaffiliated voters are closely divided on the question.

While 85% of Republicans count Obama as more liberal than themselves, 70% of Democrats say his political views are about the same as theirs. Among unaffiliated voters, 57% rate Obama as more liberal, 14% more conservative and 24% about the same.

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The “liberal” tag has been a political killer in modern national elections, prompting liberals in recent years to begin calling themselves progressives. But 45% of the nation’s voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Obama is performing his role as president in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Approval Index. Just 16% Strongly Disapprove. Overall, voters like what they see in the new President.

Obama recently proposed a $775-billion economic recovery plan, with $350 billion set aside for tax cuts. But the congressional Democratic leadership wanted more new spending, so the plan has now morphed into an $825-billion package with $275 billion in tax cuts and $550 billion in new spending.

Forty-five percent (45%) voters favor the Obama plan, and it is seen by most as likely to become law during Obama’s first 100 days in office.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also wants to repeal President Bush’s tax cuts for those who make more than $250,000 a year well before they expire at the end of 2010, but Obama is willing to wait until then before raising taxes on those high-income earners. Sixty-four percent (64%) of voters say it is more important to cut taxes for 95% of Americans than to raise taxes on those who earn more than $250,000 per year.

Sixty-five percent (65%) of voters nationwide see Obama as politically liberal, including 41% who said he was very liberal. Other data on the President is updated daily at Obama by the Numbers.

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