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29% Say U.S. is Heading in Right Direction

Twenty-nine (29%) of Likely U.S. Voters think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey for the week ending May 25.

This has held steady for three weeks now. The number who say the country is heading in the right direction has been in the narrow range of 28% to 30% for 19 out of the 23 weeks since mid-December.

Early last October during the federal government shutdown, confidence in the country’s course fell to 13%, the lowest finding in five years.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of voters now think the country is headed down the wrong track, down one point from the week before. Eighty percent (80%) felt the country was on the wrong track in early October.

A year ago, 30% said the country was heading in the right direction while 61% said it was going down the wrong track.

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 The national telephone survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on May 19-25, 2014. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Fieldwork for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Republicans and 67% of voters not affiliated with either major political party think the country is on the wrong track. Among Democrats, 48% believe the country is heading in the right direction, while 39% think it is headed down the wrong track.
    
 Ninety-one percent (91%) of voters who say they are members of Tea Party believe the country is on the wrong track. Fifty-five percent (55%) of those not associated with that movement agree.

Fifty-one percent (51%) of black voters think the country is heading in the right direction. Sixty-eight percent (68%) of whites and 59% of other minority voters disagree.
    
 Eighty-three percent (83%) of conservative voters and 58% of moderates believe the country is headed down the wrong track. Half (49%) of liberal voters believe it is heading in the right direction.
    
 Sixty-four percent (64%) of the Political Class believe the country is heading in the right direction, while 74% of Mainstream voters think it is headed down the wrong track.
    
 Democrats have a four-point lead over Republicans on the latest Generic Congressional Ballot.

Just 19% of all voters think most high school graduates today have the skills needed to enter college or the workforce.

Thirty-eight percent (38%) of Americans say now is a good time for someone in their area to sell a house. That's only one point shy of the highest level of confidence in over five years. 

Seventy-three percent (73%) expect to be spending more a year from now on groceries, the highest level of pessimism in a year.

Fifty-two percent (52%) are at least somewhat confident in the stability of the nation's banks. Sixty-eight percent (68%) felt that way before the Wall Street meltdown in the fall of 2008.

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The national telephone survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on May 19-25, 2014. The margin of sampling error for the survey is +/- 2 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Fieldwork 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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