What They Told Us: Reviewing Last Week’s Key Polls - Week Ending December 9, 2017

The good economic news continues with Friday’s jobs report and the Dow inching ever higher, but President Trump still isn’t getting the credit.

Rasmussen Reports’ newest Economic Index has risen to its second highest level in three years of tracking. Now at 132.7, it compares to 108.1 during President Obama’s last month in office.

Plans for holiday spending remain high, perhaps in part because half of voters think it’s likely Congress will cut taxes before year’s end.

In early October, just 36% thought it was likely Congress would make such a big change to the tax code within the next six months.

The tax plan includes a repeal of the Obamacare requirement that every American must have health insurance. Only 34% of voters favor the individual health care mandate.

The latest Rasmussen Minute asks: After failing to deliver on a seven-year promise to repeal and replace Obamacare, could Republicans actually be on the road to passing historic tax cuts and dismantling the health care law all in one fell swoop?

Still, just 35% of voters say the country is headed in the right direction. Of course, that compares to 25% this time last year.

The president’s daily job approval ratings remain in the low to mid-40s.

Voters remain critical of the role social media plays in modern politics and really don't approve of the president’s use of Twitter.

Despite a Vanity Fair article that claims Melania Trump didn’t want to be first lady, voters generally like her but believe she is less involved in day-to-day business at the White House than her predecessor.

Voters are closely divided over the president’s decision to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but among those who value the Jewish state most as a U.S. ally, the majority thinks it’s a good idea.

Senator Al Franken, a Minnesota Democrat, has resigned from the U.S. Senate under the weight of additional allegations of sexual misconduct. Voters think that’s a good call.

Find out Monday morning if Franken’s decision changes any minds about a Roy Moore Senate win in Alabama.

Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Bill O’Reilly – the list continues to grow. But most Americans think journalists who’ve lost their jobs over allegations of sexual harassment will bounce back in the near future. 

Following the removal of a top player on Robert Mueller’s team for his bias against Trump, one-in-three voters (33%) think the special counsel and his group have a political agenda in their continuing investigation of possible Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Questions are also being raised about pro-Clinton bias in the FBI’s investigation of Hillary Clinton last year. Most voters disagreed with the FBI’s decision not to indict Clinton for her mishandling of classified information when she was secretary of State. 

Few voters agree with a San Francisco jury’s decision clearing an illegal immigrant repeat criminal of killing 32-year-old Kate Steinle, and there’s sizable support for punishing lawmakers who protect criminal illegals from federal immigration authorities.

Trump has ended Obama’s so-called Dreamers program that shielded nearly 800,000 illegal immigrants who came to this country as children from deportation, but he gave Congress six months to do something else before his decision takes effect. A top Senate Democrat is threatening to force a federal government shutdown unless Congress does something to protect these “Dreamers,” but most voters oppose a shutdown over the Dreamers issue and believe securing the border is a bigger priority.

Voters are slightly more supportive of government regulation of the Internet now that so-called “net neutrality” rules are being rolled back, but they still prefer more free market competition. 

In other surveys last week:

-- Seventy-four percent (74%) of Americans believe Christmas is over-commercialized.

-- Nearly as many (68%) say Christmas should be more about Jesus Christ than about Santa Claus.

-- Still, the holiday shopping season is in high gear, and while most Americans agree that credit cards tempt people to buy things they can’t afford, very few think that's a problem for them.

Visit the Rasmussen Reports home page for the latest current polling coverage of events in the news. The page is updated several times each day.

Remember, if it's in the news, it's in our polls.