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.
Ask most Americans what car they definitely plan to buy next, and, perhaps surprisingly, General Motors edges Ford and Toyota. But Toyota is the one most folks are willing to at least consider.
With the health care debate raging in Washington, D.C., there’s one change Americans clearly believe in: Members of Congress have now surpassed corporate CEOs to hold the least favorably regarded profession in the country.
A new government report concludes that taxpayers are unlikely ever to be repaid for much of the bailout money already given to General Motors, but 57% of Americans believe it’s likely the government will have to provide even more bailout funding to keep GM in business. That figure includes 23% who say an additional funding request is very likely.
President Obama in a speech on Wall Street this week repeated his call for greater oversight of the U.S. financial system, but opposition to more government regulation in that area of the economy has now risen to 53%.
Both consumers and investors are less confident about the economy than they were a year ago when the Lehman Brothers financial firm collapsed and Wall Street's woes became front-page news.
General Motors is now promising a 60-day money-back guarantee to all purchasers of its cars and trucks, and 14% of Americans say they are more likely to buy a GM vehicle because of it.
Forty-five percent (45%) of Americans believe that labor unions make our country weaker, while just 26% say unions make the nation stronger.
Economic confidence among small business owners jumped to its highest level in 18 months in August as more owners expressed faith that the U.S. economy is on the rise and gave signs that they are more willing to invest in advertising and new inventory, according to the latest Discover (R) Small Business Watch (SM). The index rose to 89.8, up 7.7 points from July and the highest level since 90.9 in February 2008.
Sixty percent (60%) of likely voters now say tax increases hurt the economy, up six points from last month. While this is the highest total measured in over a year, the result has remained fairly consistent for over a decade.
Despite their reservations about the government bailout of the financial industry, Americans are clearly less worried about their own money in the bank.
Sixty-two percent (62%) of Americans say it’s always better to cut taxes than increase government spending because taxpayers, not bureaucrats, are the best judges of how to spend their own money.
