23% Confident Policymakers Know What They’re Doing About The Economy

As Congress continues its debate over the national debt ceiling, Americans are less confident than ever that the nation’s policymakers know what they are doing when it comes to the economy. 

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 23% of American Adults are at least somewhat confident that U.S. policymakers know what they’re doing when it comes to addressing the nation’s current economic problems.  Seventy-five percent (75%) are not confident in the country’s policymakers.  These figures include two percent (2%) who are Very Confident and 39% who are Not At All Confident. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Confidence in U.S. policymakers is down 13 points from  late April 2009, when 36% of adults felt assured that the nation’s leaders knew what they were doing on the economy.  At that time, 60% lacked confidence in U.S. policymakers.

Seventy-five percent (75%) of the Political Class is confident U.S. policy makers know what they’re doing when it comes to the nation’s economic issues, while 85% of mainstream voters are not.

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The national survey of 1,000 Adults was conducted on July 1-2, 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.