The Washington landscape for the next two years began to take shape this past week, with Republicans taking charge of the House and President Obama shaking up his White House staff to meet the challenge of his new, energized opposition.
Halfway through his first term in the White House, voters remain narrowly divided over President Obama's performance as the nation's chief executive.
With opposing political parties controlling the House and Senate, chances for repealing the national health care law appear slim, so some opponents have suggested that Republicans in the House refuse to fund portions of the law.
Even as President Obama insists that troop withdrawals will begin in July as scheduled, voter confidence in the course of the war in Afghanistan remains low.
Voters see “Tea Party” a bit less negatively as a political label these days, while “liberal” and “progressive” have lost ground even among Democrats.
A majority of U.S. voters continue to share a favorable impression of first lady Michelle Obama.
Already? The new Congress, with Republicans in control of the House, isn’t even seated yet, and voters are already expressing more likely disappointment than they did around Election Day.
Barely two weeks separated the close of one session of Congress and the opening of another if the national legislators gather in Washington, D.C. this Wednesday as planned to get on with the nation’s business. But two sessions of Congress could scarcely be more different at the outset.
With Republicans on the brink of taking over the U.S. House of Representatives, voters continue to strongly support repeal of the national health care law passed by Democrats last March, but those who already have insurance are still almost evenly divided as to whether the law will force them to change their coverage.
When tracking President Obama’s job approval on a daily basis, people sometimes get so caught up in the day-to-day fluctuations that they miss the bigger picture. To look at the longer-term trends, Rasmussen Reports compiles the numbers on a full-month basis, and the results can be seen in the graphics below.
While President Obama continues to earn sky-high job approval ratings among Democrats, there are significant enthusiasm gaps among various segments of the president's party.
Congress didn’t take much time off for the holidays, but what a difference a couple of weeks could make. Or will they?
The deal to extend the Bush tax cuts alienated the president from many in his own party and made a lot of conservative Republicans unhappy, but nearly one-in-three voters don’t even know how their local congressman voted on the recent legislation.
While it’s a hot topic in Washington. D.C., only 33% of voters are Very Closely following recent news stories about the Census and congressional redistricting. That puts it way below the level of interest in the top stories of 2010.
In a year loaded with news, voters in 2010 paid most attention to stories about unemployment and job creation, the disastrous oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, the health care debate and the extension of the Bush tax cuts.
One-in-five voters now regularly get news and political updates on their phones or other portable electronic devices.
Nearly two years into the Obama presidency, voters still believe the nation’s continuing economic problems are due more to President George W. Bush than to the policies of the current occupant of the White House.
American voters believe free market competition will protect Internet users more than government regulation and fear that regulation will be used to push a political agenda.
Three-out-of-four U.S. voters (73%) fear a terrorist threat more than a nuclear attack. A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 16% believe a potential nuclear attack is a greater threat to the United States.
For the second time this month, 60% of Likely Voters at least somewhat favor repeal of the national health care law, while the number who expect health care costs to increase is at its highest level since August.
