you're making up stuff. Home ownership and equity/stock ownership among minorities are at all time highs.
so what do you suggest? welfareif you factor in growth in health care costs and higher education, real earning power has dropped massively.
Both of those problems have been either actively ignored by the GOP or exacerbated by short-sighted policies with no long-run solutions.
"Bush's approval rate is the highest it's been in a year"
Still in the historical toilet.
All of Congress is corrupt and will be earmarking (aka raiding the slush funds) to buy as many votes as possible. ie, America is for sale, the American voter is for sale, America is all about nothing but $$$. Ain't democracy, American or Venzuelan, devilishly fantastic?
Crookie cheer is that Repugs don't appear to be totally destroyable. That's the only kind of cheer they have, which is hardly any cheer at all.
==================
September 20, 2006
Poll Finds Most Americans Displeased With Congress
By ADAM NAGOURNEY and JANET ELDER
With the midterm elections less than seven weeks away, Americans have an overwhelmingly negative view of the Republican-controlled Congress, with substantial majorities saying that they disapprove of the job it is doing and that its members do not deserve reelection, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll.
The disregard for Congress is the most intense it has been since 1994, when Republicans captured 52 seats to end four decades of Democratic control of the House and retook the Senate as well. It underlines the challenge the Republican Party faces in trying to hold onto power in the face of a surge in anti-in bent sentiment.
By overwhelming margins, respondents said that members of Congress were too tied to special interests and that they did not understand the needs and problems of average Americans. Two-thirds said Congress had accomplished less than it typically does in a two-year session; most said they said they could not name a single major piece of legislation that cleared this Congress. Just 25 percent said they approved of the way Congress was doing its job.
The Times/CBS News poll also found that President Bush did not improve his own or his party’s standing through the intense campaign of speeches he made and events he attended surrounding the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The speeches were at the heart of a Republican strategy to thrust national security to the forefront in the fall elections.
Mr. Bush’s job approval rating was 37 percent, virtually unchanged from the last Times/CBS News poll, which was conducted in August. On the issue that has been a bulwark for Mr. Bush, 54 percent said they approve of the way he is managing the effort to combat terrorists, again unchanged from last month, though up from earlier this spring.
Republicans continue to hold a slight edge over Democrats on which party is better at dealing with terrorism, though that edge did not grow since last month despite Mr. Bush’s flurry of speeches on national security, including one from the Oval Office on the night of the Sept. 11 anniversary.
But the Times/CBS News poll found a slight increase in the percentage of Americans who say they approve of the way Mr. Bush has handled the war in Iraq, to 36 percent from 30 percent. It also suggests that after bottoming out this spring, Mr. Bush’s approval ratings on the economy and foreign policy have returned to their levels of about a year ago, both at 37 percent. The number of people who called terrorism the most important issue facing the country doubled to 14 percent in this poll from 7 percent in July; 22 percent named the war in Iraq as their top concern, little changed from July.
Across the board, the poll found marked disenchantment with Congress, highlighting the opportunity that Democrats see to make the argument for a change in leadership and to make the election a national referendum on the performance of the Republican-controlled Congress and Mr. Bush’s tenure. In one striking finding, 77 percent of respondents — including 65 percent of Republicans — said that most members of Congress had not done a good enough job to deserve re-election and that it was time to give new people a chance. That is the highest number of voters who said it was “time for new people” since the fall of 1994.
“You get some people in there, and they’re in there forever,” said Jan Weaver, an Aberdeen, S.D., resident who described herself as a Republican voter, in a follow-up interview. “They’re so out of touch with reality.”
In the poll, 50 percent of voters said they would support a Democrat in the fall Congressional election, compared with 35 percent who said they would support a Republican. But the poll found that Democrats continued to struggle to offer a case for control of government to be turned over to them; only 38 percent of all respondents said the Democrats have a clear plan for how they would run the country, compared with 45 percent who said the Republicans had offered a clear plan.
Overall discontent with Congress or Washington does not necessarily signify how someone will vote when they see the familiar name of their member of Congress on the ballot. Thus, while 61 percent of respondents said they disapproved of the way Congress was handling its job, just 29 percent said they disapproved of the way their own “representative is handling his or her job.”
For all the clear dissatisfaction with the 109th Congress, 39 percent of respondents said their own representative deserved re-election, compared with 48 percent who said it was time for someone new. What is more, it seems highly unlikely Democrats would experience a sweep similar to the one Republicans experienced in 1994. Most political analysts judge only about 40 House seats to be in play at the moment, compared with more than 100 seats at this point 12 years ago, in large part because redistricting has created more safe seats for both parties.
The New York Times/CBS News poll began last Friday, four days after the commemoration of the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, and two weeks after the White House began its offensive on security issues. A USA Today-Gallup Poll published on Tuesday reported that Mr. Bush’s job approval rating had jumped to 44 percent from 39 percent. The questioning in that poll went through Sunday; The Times and CBS completed the questioning for this poll on Tuesday night. Presidential addresses often produce shifts in public opinion that tend to be transitory.
The nationwide telephone poll was conducted Friday through Tuesday with 1,131 adults, of whom 1,007 said they were registered to vote, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points.
The poll found indications that voters are paying unusually close attention to a midterm election: 43 percent said they are more enthusiastic about voting than usual. But with turnout promising to be a critical factor in many of the closer Senate and House races, there was no sign that either party had an edge in terms of voter enthusiasm.
Evidence of antipathy toward Congress in particular — and Washington in general — was abundant. Seventy-one percent of those polled said they did not trust the government to do what is right.
“If they had new blood, then the people that influence them — the lobbyists — would maybe not be so influential,” Norma Scranton, a Republican from Thedford, Neb., said in a follow-up interview after participating in the poll. “They don’t have our interest at heart, because they’re influenced by these lobbyists. If they were new, maybe they would try to please their cons uents a little better.”
Another person who participated in the poll also expressed discontent with legislators. “There’s so much bickering, so much disagreement, they just can’t get together on certain issues,” Lois Thurber, a Republican from Axtell, Neb., said in a follow-up interview. “They’re kind of more worried about themselves than they are about the country.”
Across the nation, in bents and challengers are trying to accommodate this sour mood. Democrats are presenting themselves as a fresh start: “Isn’t it time for a change?” asked an advertisement by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee directed at Senator Jim Talent, a Republican of Missouri.
And some Republican in bents are seeking to distance themselves from fellow party members in Washington. “I’ve gone against the president and the Republican leadership when I think they are wrong,” Representative Chris Shays, a Connecticut Republican locked in a tough re-election battle, said in a television advertisement being shown this week.
The Republicans continue to be seen as the better party to deal with terrorism, but by nowhere near the margin they once enjoyed over the Democrats: it is now 42 percent to 37 percent. When asked which party takes the threat of terrorism more seriously, 22 percent named Republicans, compared with 6 percent who said Democrats; 69 percent said they both did.
Voters said that Democrats were more likely to tell the truth than Republicans when talking about the war and Iraq and about the actual threat of terrorism. And 59 percent of respondents said that Mr. Bush was hiding something when he talked about how things were going in Iraq, while another 25 percent said he was mostly lying when talking about the war.
Not that Democrats should draw any solace from that: 71 percent of respondents said they believed Democrats in Congress were hiding something when they talked about how well things were going in Iraq — while 13 percent said they were mostly lying.
Robert Allen, a Democrat from Ventura, Calif., who also participated in the poll, said in a follow-up interview: “We’re in a stalemate right now. They’re not getting hardly anything done.”
“It’s time to elect a whole new bunch so they can do something,” he said.
Marina Stefan, Megan Thee and Marjorie Connelly contributed reporting for this article.
More recent polls have him sliding again.....
I guess it was nice while it lasted for you cultists
and the republicans are still going to win. That's how pathetic the dems are. Too bad because this country could use a legit 2nd party.
everyone knows democrats are nothing but sand and various robot parts...lol j/k
The problem with that poll regarding Congress, most Americans hate everyone else's congressman, but then they still re-elect their own in bnet Senator or Representative.
the only problem with congress is that they sometimes agree with bushy wushy.......
The problem with the Democrats is that even Hilary doesn't have the balls to run the party.
Al Gore should have started a parallel government in Washington in 2000.
Seriously, the thugs own big oil, big insurance, pharmacutical and health care, military contractors, bankers and financieers, the people who own e-voting machines, and almost all of the media including radio, TV, and newspapers. Those are huge advantages no matter the opposition.
The part the US should take notice is the clapping and the cheering by other UN members [at Hugo Chavez' speech] --Smeagol
A direct result of 6 years of failed Bush foreign policy.
Bush's short sighted policies are having an effect I predicted, and this effect will only get worse over time, until someone with a better understanding of the world takes the oval office.
People and governments who don't actively support terrorism, will be inclined less and less to actively help us root out those who would do us harm.
I am not talking about official policy to tacitly help terrorists. But rather the actions of individuals who don't like us to not check passports as closely, or to allow overt access to our law enforcement officials. Individuals who slowly over time gain a more and more negative view of our country will do less and less to help us.
Collectively that adds up to a lot more freedom of action for Al Qaeda to operate.
In this, Bush has made us less secure by his actions, and will continue to make us less secure as time goes by.
Those who think that Iraq is "giving the terrorists a platform" to attack troops instead of attacking us here, are partially right. It IS giving them a platform, and a highly visible one, from which to "prove" that they are right about us. The true impact of the bad PR will be felt long down the road.
When that time comes, as it I know it will, the culpability will be DIRECTLY attributable to the Bush presidency.
We must stay the course!
In time, the world will end.
Then it will be "Mission Accomplished II"
Okay...........now that you have squarely laid the blame, just what are your solutions? Many on here are great at criticizing but rarely offer any solutions! And don't tell me that Bush has screwed up things so bad that it can't be done. Some solutions please!
Heh, that would require an hour or two for one good post. I have been meaning to find that hour or two just to address this very important question.
I agree, that one should not incessantly without a plan of one's own.
"Some solutions please!"
400K troops into Iraq, and 100K troops into Afghanistan.
Impeach dubya/ head/rummy/condi and replace with an Executive branch that reaches out to allies, and neutrals, shows them respect, encourages their participation with the USA in the fight against terror (and in everything else). An admiinistration that realizes that making the world better makes the world better for the USA, rather than the Repugs' Darwinian, meanest badass onthe planet of "America first and only. Everybody else go yourself"
Who opened your cage? Go back to sleep!
Boutons - your "solution" is not a solution at all. You still haven't come up with specifics of HOW you would reach out to other countries. Would you throw a big party, have a barbeque, toga party, wine-tasting, WHAT?
When did these tax cuts occur? I did not see any difference in my pay. Anyways with the high gas prices I have less with the Repubs in office.
Right, because the current administration is to blame for everything that caused oil futures to skyrocket.Anyways with the high gas prices I have less with the Repubs in office.
There is tremendous work to be done. The best start is to elect Democrats to the House and Senate simply to provide oversight and balance to this mistake prone administration.
400k troops in Iraq and 100k in Afghanistan is a start. Don't up afghanistan. The world agreed with that action. In Iraq, we have to staighten out this biggest of mistakes in modern history. Remove the ahole that lead us into this abyss on a lie. Remove the least trusted President in todays world, and other countries will embrace our efforts of redemption. Beg to form alliances with a foundation based on truth, justice, and mutual respect of fellow mankind. Inspire other countries to examine the benefits of reducing the affects terrorist. They cannot be completely destroyed, but can be isolated and less affective. Convince the Jews and Arabs that working together with help from the world could lead to peace and mutual, beneficial respect. Israel must stop their expansion and build an economy that includes the Palestinians.
This might be a start.
Wishful thinking - most of what you suggested will never be possible. How are you to build alliances built on trust, justice, and mutual respect when many of the world's countries don't know the meaning of those words. Their idea of a hero is Hugo Chavez, Ahmidina-whackjob, and Fidel Castro!
Also, there will never be lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians - mainly because the vast majority of Arabs don't want sister states, they want Israel wiped off the map and all the Jews with it!
Impossible just takes longer. I prefer that to our current stategy of bombing=solution. That plan will only get you dead. If we don't form real alliances, we will be isolated and eventually devoured. Why should any country believe in our current administration? Shouldn't they fear an attack from us based on nothing more than fabrication?
Where does it say at that website anything about a tax cuts and how much is/was?
That is the site to inform the taxpayer on actually filing a return.
How about a link to where it actually talks about the tax cut.
400k troops in Iraq is a very good idea. We have to try to right this horrible wrong. Our current strategy is failing miserably. This war is cancerous and we have to remove the tumor that caused it. To the rest of the world, Bush is the face of danger. I spent August in Europe and they urgently wanted to express this.
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