Voters are a bit less inclined this month to blame President Obama’s policies for the country’s current economic problems.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 50% of U.S. voters now say the problems are due to the recession which began under the Bush administration. Forty-two percent (42%) blame Obama’s policies, and eight percent (8%) are not sure.

In a survey at the end of last month, voters were inclined to assess blame a bit more evenly. Forty-nine percent (49%) pointed the finger at the Bush-era recession, while 45% said the nation’s economic problems were caused more by Obama’s policies.

Voters also have a little more confidence in the president’s economic judgment this month, although 57% still trust their own judgment more than Obama’s when it comes to the economic issues facing the nation. In late October, 62% felt that way.

But 33% trust Obama’s economic judgment more, up six points from the previous survey. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure whose judgment they have more confidence in.

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Still, the Obama administration’s response to the economic challenges facing the country is one of the reasons the president’s job approval ratings have fallen to record lows in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

Women voters by 13 points are more inclined to blame the recession that began under the Bush administration for the continuing economic problems. Men are almost evenly divided on the question.
Voters ages 18 to 29 are far more likely to blame the Bush administration than the current president’s policies.

Democrats and Republicans naturally side with the president from their respective parties. Voters not affiliated with either party tend to blame Obama’s policies a bit more.

While 89% of the Political Class blame the Bush-era recession, 53% of Mainstream Americans think Obama’s policies are at fault.

Voters 40 and older are much more likely than younger voters to trust than own economic judgment over the president’s.

Eighty-three percent (83%) of Republicans and 66% of unaffiliateds trust themselves more than the president, but just 27% of Democrats agree.

Thirty-six percent (36%) of all voters believe the $787-billion economic stimulus plan proposed by the president has helped the U.S. economy, but 34% say the stimulus has hurt. Twenty-four percent (24%) say it has had no economic impact.

Some in Washington are already talking about the need for a second economic stimulus plan to deal with rising unemployment. But 51% of voters say more jobs would be created if the remaining spending planned in the first stimulus plan was cancelled right away.

Most voters (53%) worry that the federal government will do too much when it comes to reacting to the nation’s financial problems. That’s seven points higher than the week after Obama took office in January.

Voters continue to think that the president’s top budget priority should be cutting the federal deficit in half by the end of his first term in office. But they see it as the goal the president is least likely to achieve.

Adding to the challenge, voters see the goals of deficit reduction and health care reform as contradictory: 68% say passage of the health care plan will increase the deficit.

Forty-two percent (42%) of Americans say Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has done a poor job handling the credit crisis and federal bailout programs. ust 20% rate Geithner’s performance in these areas as good or excellent.

The economy continues to be the top issue for voters.

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