Most Americans like the idea of providing tax credits for first-time home buyers but are less enthusiastic when the price tag is included. They strongly oppose expanding it to existing homeowners, although Congress did just that this week.
On the heels of Ford’s better-than-expected third quarter profits and its promise of solid profitability by 2011, 68% of Americans adults hold a favorable opinion of the one company that passed on a government bailout. Ford continues to far outdistance public perceptions of General Motors and Chrysler.
In the United States today, workers expect to change jobs on a regular basis. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just, 37% of working Americans expect to be working for the same employer in five years.
Employed Americans are slightly more confident than they were this summer that leaving their current jobs will be their own decision rather than their employer’s.
The Obama Administration and senior congressional Democrats hope to exercise more government control over big banks to keep them from failing, but voters don’t seem too sympathetic right now.
Questions linger about the effectiveness of the $787-billion economic stimulus plan proposed by President Obama and passed by Congress in February.
Fifty-seven percent (57%) of Americans say the federal government should place limits on how much banks charge when customers overdraw their bank accounts, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Despite reports of slowing inflation from Federal Reserve policymakers, Americans remain highly concerned about the issue and lack confidence in the Fed to keep inflation under control.
One-out-of-two Americans (50%) still lack confidence in the U.S. banking system, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Time Magazine refers to it as the Obama administration's "stealth stimulus," pumping more government money into the economy without packaging it as a politically unpopular second economic stimulus plan. One of the new ideas is a proposed one-time $250 payment to seniors who for the first time in years won't be getting a cost of living increase in their Social Security checks because inflation's down.
Most Americans like state lotteries and think they’re one thing that state governments should run them rather than the private sector.
The British government is selling a number of things it owns to pay off its growing debt, but voters have mixed feelings about the U.S. government doing the same thing. Amtrak and the ownership stakes in General Motors and Chrysler can go, as far as voters are concerned, but don’t touch the government’s land and the U.S. Postal Service.
Americans are more confident than they’ve been all year that housing values are going up and also are more likely to say their home is worth more than they owe on it. But they still don’t think it’s a good time to be selling.
Some in Congress are considering a second stimulus plan to fight the country’s growing unemployment problem, but 62% of U.S. voters oppose the passage of another economic stimulus package this year.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi floated the idea of a national sales tax in a recent television interview, but a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey shows that 67% oppose a national sales tax on all goods and services.
Forty-nine percent (49%) of American adults now say that the U.S. economy will be stronger in five years than it is today. That figure is down from 58% in July and 64% in March.
Twenty-six percent (26%) of American workers now say their employers are laying people off. That’s down from 28% a month ago and 30% two months ago. It’s the lowest number reporting layoffs since last November.
Americans are slightly more confident that government action can help the housing market, but a sizable majority continues to believe that the market will only improve when the overall economy gets better.
Confidence in the $787-billion economic stimulus package approved by Congress in February has reached a new high. Thirty-six percent (36%) of likely voters now say the package has helped the economy, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Most Americans favor the soon-to-expire program that provides first-time home buyers with tax credits of up to $8,000, at least until they hear how much it costs.
