25% Say U.S. Heading in Right Direction

The number of U.S. voters who feel the country is heading in the right direction has risen above 20% for the first time since the week before the partial government shutdown began on October 1.

Twenty-five percent (25%) of Likely U.S. Voters now say the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey for the week ending October 27. That's an eight-point jump from 17% the week before but still well below the high of 43% the week before Election Day a year ago.

Confidence in the country’s direction reached as low as 13% two weeks ago, the lowest finding in five years.

After President Obama assumed office in January 2009, the number of voters who felt the country was heading in the right direction rose to 40% in early May of that year. In 2010 and 2011, confidence fell to the narrow range of 14% to 19%, levels similar to those measured in the final months of the George W. Bush administration. Optimism began easing up again in mid-December 2011.

Sixty-eight percent (68%) of voters now think the country is headed down the wrong track, down from 75% last week and a recent high of 80% two weeks ago. From January 2009 until October 2012, belief that the country was on the wrong track ranged from 55% to 80%, but it tracked in the low 50s from just before Election Day until early December.
 
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The national telephone survey of 3,500 Likely Voters was conducted by Rasmussen Reports on October 21-27, 2013. 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. 

Most voters want a long-term budget deal that cuts federal spending, but 64% think another government shutdown is likely because Congress won't reach a budget-cutting deal.

Ninety percent (90%) of Republicans and 75% of voters not affiliated with either major party still think the country is on the wrong track. Democrats are evenly divided.
 
Black voters remain closely divided with 42% who believe the country is headed in the right direction and 46% who say it's on the wrong track. Seventy-four percent (74%) of whites and 56% of other minority voters believe the country is headed down the wrong track.
 
Sixty percent (60%) of voters under 40 think the country's on the wrong track, but they are less pessimistic than their elders.

Ninety-four percent (94%) of Tea Party voters still think the country is on the wrong track, compared to 62% of those not affiliated with the grass roots movement.
 
Sixty-one percent (61%) of the Political Class say the country is on the right track. Seventy-nine percent (75%) of Mainstream voters think the country is on the wrong track instead.

Democrats leads Republicans by six on the latest Generic Congressional Ballot. 

Voters are evenly divided when asked whether they agree more politically with President Obama or with the average member of the Tea Party.
 
Thirty-three percent (33%) of American Adults believe the U.S. economy will be stronger in a year's time, but 41% think the economy will be weaker a year from now.

More than half (52%) of voters expect Obamacare to make the U.S. health care system worse.

Forty-seven percent (47%) of Americans say it’s still possible for anyone to find work, but 42% disagree. 

Fifty-two percent (52%) now say that the country’s best days are in the past, a near two-year high. 

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