Even as Budget Bickering Continues, 60% Expect DC Politics to Get More Partisan

As President Barack Obama, Senator Harry Reid, and House Speaker John Boehner struggle to prevent partisan politics from forcing a partial shutdown of the federal government, 60% of voters nationwide expect the partisan bickering to get even worse over the coming year.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 16%  disagree and believe politics will be more cooperative in that time. Twenty-three percent (23%) are not sure.  (To see survey question wording, click here.) 

Those figures are little changed from a month ago. When President Obama first took office, hopes were much higher for bi-partisan cooperation. Since March 2009, however, the number who believe politics will be more partisan in a year’s time has ranged from a low of 50% to a high of 70% since late March 2009. 

Voters see plenty of blame to go around. Just 34% believe President Obama is governing on a bi-partisan basis. At the same time, just 19% believe that Congressional Republicans are acting in a bi-partisan basis and 19% say the same about Congressional Democrats.

Forty-nine percent (49%) believe the president is governing as a partisan Democrat. Sixty-one percent (61%) believe Congressional Republicans are acting in a partisan manner and 62% say the same about Congressional Democrats. None of those numbers have shifted much over the past month.

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The survey of 1,000 Likely Voters was conducted on April 5-6, 2011 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.