Poll: 81 Percent Think US on Wrong Track

[JackL]

NEW YORK (AP) — More than 80 percent of Americans believe the country is headed in the wrong direction, the highest such number since the early 1990s, according to a new survey.

The CBS News-New York Times poll released Thursday showed 81 percent of respondents said they believed "things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track." That was up from 69 percent a year ago, and 35 percent in early 2002.

The survey comes as housing turmoil has rocked Wall Street amid an economic downturn. The economy has surpassed the war in Iraq as the dominating issue of the U.S. presidential race, and there is now nearly a national consensus that the United States faces significant problems, the poll found.

A majority of Democrats and Republicans, men and women, residents of cities and rural areas, college graduates and those who finished only high school say the United States is headed in the wrong direction, according to the survey, which was published on The New York Times' Web site.

Seventy-eight percent of respondents said the country was worse off than five years ago; just 4 percent said it was doing better.

The newspaper said Americans are more dissatisfied with the country's direction than at any time since the poll's inception in the early 1990s. Only 21 percent of respondents said the overall economy was in good condition, the lowest such number since late 1992. Two in three people said they believed the economy was already in recession.

Still, the approval rating of President George W. Bush did not change since last summer, with 28 percent of respondents saying they approved of the job he was doing.

The poll also found that Americans blame government officials for the housing crisis more than banks or home buyers and other borrowers. Forty percent of respondents said regulators were mostly to blame, while 28 percent named lenders and 14 percent named borrowers.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gNpUhHI3vSmaLFR-Xli0AsbnuSlwD8VQSSD80

[yunt2ride]

Where does these polls come from. I do not know one person that has ever been called about any polls. We have several thousand members on here. Has anyone ever been called on this type of stuff.

[shogun323]

Where does these polls come from. I do not know one person that has ever been called about any polls. We have several thousand members on here. Has anyone ever been called on this type of stuff.

Ha. Good point. I have never been called for a poll. I don't trust polls to much either unless they fit my argument. 

[SWAMP_DONKEY]

  I get ATV surveys once or twice a month in the mail with a 1.00 to fill them out....BUT I HAVE NEVER had the Gov call me or send a poll.

[1FasterBlaster]

  I got called for a poll about my AT&T cellphone service once!! Does that qualify me?

[klutchbuster400]

I had a muvico paradise theater call me once for a poll, that lasted about 3 seconds.

[FishaHallic]

Let's see, there are over 300 million americans and they only poll a few thousand people for these polls at best.  I'll tell you what you guys that have not been polled should wait around your phone for the call and maybe in about the year ..........hm I don't know 2092 there will be a .000012% chance you will get a call.

[TNTaylor]

I've never participated in a gov't poll but I believe the percentages shown in the article are probably pretty representative.  Does anyone on this forum disagree that we are heading in the wrong direction on a lot of our major issues, Iraq, economy, etc.

[yunt2ride]

I've never participated in a gov't poll but I believe the percentages shown in the article are probably pretty representative.  Does anyone on this forum disagree that we are heading in the wrong direction on a lot of our major issues, Iraq, economy, etc.

That poll, just like every other poll, just makes somebodys pay because its news and a story, they get paid for the story. Someone  comes up with them, writes a story and all of america beleives it. Until, they put the poll in the voting booth for every one to vote on, its propaganda. If the people who write it are democrats, then it will make the democrats looks good, if they are republican, then it will make republicans look good. None of them are worth the paper they are written on.

[JackL]

I've never participated in a gov't poll but I believe the percentages shown in the article are probably pretty representative.  Does anyone on this forum disagree that we are heading in the wrong direction on a lot of our major issues, Iraq, economy, etc.

I'm not sure why anyone is calling this a government poll, and I also am not sure how accurate a poll of 1500 people could be at gauging the entire countries feelings but considering the state of the economy and the amount of layoffs going on I think it might be close.

I don't see anyone here disagreeing with the results.

[trx#9]

 

[AintSkeered]

Duh! Do ya think?

[rancher1]

     

 

[digginfool]

Here's three things to think about.  Just might make you think twice about looking for change.  These are not my words, just an email I received.  Clearly, some of it is just conservative crap but there is quite a bit of verifiable information in here.

"Part 1

In just one year . Remember the election in 2006?

Thought you might like to read the following:

A little over one year ago:

1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;

2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;

3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.

Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:

1) Consumer confidence plummet;

2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;

3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);

4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value >
 evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);

5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;

6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.

 America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!


Remember it's Congress that makes law not the President. He has
to work with what's handed to him.


Quote of the Day........"My friends, we live in the greatest
 nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me
 as we try to change it." -- Barack Obama

Part 2:

Taxes...Whether Democrat or a Republican you will find these
statistics enlightening and amazing.

www.taxfoundation.org/publications/show/151.html

Taxes under Clinton 1999 Taxes under Bush 2008

Single making 30K - tax $8,400 Single making 30K - tax > $4,500

Single making 50K - tax $14,000 Single making 50K - tax > $12,500

Single making 75K - tax $23,250 Single making 75K - tax > $18,750

Married making 60K - tax $16,800 Married making 60K- tax $9,000

Married making 75K - tax $21,000 Married making 75K - tax $18,750

Married making 125K - tax $38,750 Married making 125K - tax $31,250


Both democratic candidates will return to the higher tax rates

It is amazing how many people that fall into the categories above
think Bush is screwing them and Bill Clinton was the greatest
President ever. If Obama or Hillary are elected, they both say
they will repeal the Bush tax cuts and a good portion of the
people that fall into the categories above can't wait for it to
happen. This is like the movie The Sting with Paul Newman; you
scam somebody out of some money and they don't even know what
happened.

PART 3:

You think the war in Iraq is costing us too much?

Read this:

Boy am I confused. I have been hammered with the propaganda that it
is the Iraq war and the war on terror that is bankrupting us.

I now find that to be RIDICULOUS.

I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again
until they are read so many times that the reader gets sick of
reading them. I have included the URL's for verification of all the following facts.

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens
 each year by state governments. Verify at: http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs
 such as food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens.
 Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

3. $2.5 Billion dollars a year is spent on Medicaid for illegal aliens.
 Verify at: http://www.cis..org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.html

4. $12 Billion dollars a year is spent on primary and secondary school
 education for children here illegally and they cannot speak a
 word of English!
Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.0.html

5. $17 Billion dollars a year is spent for education for the
 American-born children of illegal aliens, known as anchor babies.
 Verify at http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

6. $3 Million Dollars a DAY is spent to incarcerate illegal aliens.
 Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

7. 30% percent of all Federal Prison inmates are illegal aliens.

 Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

8. $90 Billion Dollars a year is spent on illegal aliens for Welfare & social services by the American taxpayers. Verify at: http://premium.cnn.com/TRANSCIPTS/0610/29/ldt.01.html

9. $200 Billion Dollars a year in suppressed American wages are caused
 by the illegal aliens. Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0604/01/ldt.01.html

10. The illegal aliens in the United States have a crime rate
 that's two and a half times that of white non-illegal aliens. In
 particular, their children are going to make a huge additional crime problem
 in the US Verify at: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0606/12/ldt.01.html

11. During the year of 2005 there were 4 to 10 MILLION illegal aliens
 that crossed our Southern Border also, as many as 19,500 illegal aliens
 from Terrorist Countries. Millions of pounds of drugs, cocaine,
 meth, heroin and marijuana, crossed into the U. S from the Southern border.
 Verify at: Homeland Security Report: http://tinyurl.com/t9sht

12. The National Policy Institute, "estimated that the total
 cost of mass deportation would be between $206 and $230 billion
 or an average cost of between $41 and $46 billion annually over a five year period."
 Verify at: http://www.nationalpolicyinstitute.org/pdf/deportation.pdf

13. In 2006 illegal aliens sent home $45 BILLION in remittances
 back to their countries of origin. Verify at: http://www.rense.com/general75/niht.htm

14. "The Dark Side of Illegal Immigration: Nearly One Million
 Sex Crimes Committed by Illegal Immigrants In The United States."
 Verify at: http://www.drdsk.com/articleshtml

 The total cost is a whopping $ 338.3 BILLION DOLLARS A YEAR.
 Why are we THAT stupid?"

[JackL]

It will be interesting to research this chart I just came across.

[digginfool]

I think you will find a lot of that to be true when viewed in that format.  Neither the email I received or the chart you found really means anything unless taken in context.  Neither source considers the effect of the economies of China and India nor the manipulations of energy futures by speculators in the market.  Another article I read yesterday attributed nearly 20% of the increase in the cost of oil to the U.S. re-supply of the Strategic Oil Reserves.  Let's face it, aside from irresponsible lending and buying in the real estate market, energy costs has had the biggest effect on our economy right now.  The best thing anybody can do for themselves is to become involved, educate themselves, convince themselves and then go out and vote.

[JackL]

I think you will find a lot of that to be true when viewed in that format.  Neither the email I received or the chart you found really means anything unless taken in context.  Neither source considers the effect of the economies of China and India nor the manipulations of energy futures by speculators in the market.  Another article I read yesterday attributed nearly 20% of the increase in the cost of oil to the U.S. re-supply of the Strategic Oil Reserves.  Let's face it, aside from irresponsible lending and buying in the real estate market, energy costs has had the biggest effect on our economy right now.  The best thing anybody can do for themselves is to become involved, educate themselves, convince themselves and then go out and vote.

I agree 100%.

Interestering facts about the SPR.

The current inventory is displayed on the SPR's website. As of April 15, 2008, the current inventory was 701.1 million barrels (111,470,000 m³). At current market prices ($100 a barrel) the SPR holds over $70 billion worth of petroleum.

Individual caverns within a site can be up to 1000 m below the surface, average dimensions are 60 m wide and 600 m deep, and capacity ranges from 6 to 30 million barrels (1 to 5 million m³). Almost $4 billion was spent on the facilities. The decision to store in caverns was taken to reduce costs; the Dept. of Energy claims it is roughly 10 times cheaper to store oil below surface with the added advantages of no leaks and a constant natural churn of the oil due to a temperature gradient in the caverns. The caverns were created by drilling down and then dissolving the salt with water.

Because of the mine's construction in salt deposits, fresh water would erode the ceiling, potentially causing the structure to fail. The mine at Weeks Island - Iberia Parish, Louisiana was Decommissioned in 1999 and was backfilled with salt-saturated brine. This process, which allowed for recovery of 98% of the petroleum stored in the facility, reduced the risk of further freshwater intrusion, and helped prevent the remaining oil from leaking into the aquifer that is located over the salt dome.

[trx#9]

It will be interesting to research this chart I just came across.

Watch out Bush still has a year to fuc* up those numbers even worst.

[digginfool]

Thanks, TRX.  You provided me the perfect segue to this email I just received:


 
 United We Stand

   

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, The Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congress men, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of the 300 million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress.

In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank.


I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority.

They have no legal ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-picking thing.

I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it.  No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much O f their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con / scam regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.

No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.

The president can only propose a budget.

He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.

Who is the speaker of the House?

She/He is the leader of the majority party.

She/He and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want.

If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility.

I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.

When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Marines are in  IRAQ , it's because they want them in  IRAQ .


There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.

Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation" or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people; and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
 

 

[trx#9]

Wasn't congress primarily republican Bushes first 4 years.

[GrizzlyGator]

Wasn't congress primarily republican Bushes first 4 years.

And??? 

[rancher1]

Either way we all are srcewed and with out some kind of american revolution and over throw the goverment what can we do about it?

[FishaHallic]

Thanks, TRX.  You provided me the perfect segue to this email I just received:


 
 United We Stand

   

Charlie Reese is a former columnist of the Orlando Sentinel Newspaper

Politicians are the only people in the world who create problems and then campaign against them.

Have you ever wondered why, if both the Democrats and the Republicans are against deficits, we have deficits?

Have you ever wondered why, if all the politicians are against inflation and high taxes, we have inflation and high taxes?

You and I don't propose a federal budget. The president does.

You and I don't have the Constitutional authority to vote on appropriations. The House of Representatives does.

You and I don't write the tax code, Congress does.

You and I don't set fiscal policy, Congress does.

You and I don't control monetary policy, The Federal Reserve Bank does.

One hundred senators, 435 congress men, one president and nine Supreme Court justices - 545 human beings out of the 300 million - are directly, legally, morally and individually responsible for the domestic problems that plague this country.

I excluded the members of the Federal Reserve Board because that problem was created by the Congress.

In 1913, Congress delegated its Constitutional duty to provide a sound currency to a federally chartered but private central bank.


I excluded all the special interests and lobbyists for a sound reason. They have no legal authority.

They have no legal ability to coerce a senator, a congressman or a president to do one cotton-picking thing.

I don't care if they offer a politician $1 million dollars in cash. The politician has the power to accept or reject it.  No matter what the lobbyist promises, it is the legislator's responsibility to determine how he votes.

Those 545 human beings spend much O f their energy convincing you that what they did is not their fault. They cooperate in this common con / scam regardless of party.

What separates a politician from a normal human being is an excessive amount of gall.

No normal human being would have the gall of a Speaker, who stood up and criticized the President for creating deficits.

The president can only propose a budget.

He cannot force the Congress to accept it.

The Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, gives sole responsibility to the House of Representatives for originating and approving appropriations and taxes.

Who is the speaker of the House?

She/He is the leader of the majority party.

She/He and fellow House members, not the president, can approve any budget they want.

If the president vetoes it, they can pass it over his veto if they agree to.

It seems inconceivable to me that a nation of 300 million cannot replace 545 people who stand convicted -- by present facts - of incompetence and irresponsibility.

I can't think of a single domestic problem that is not traceable directly to those 545 people.

When you fully grasp the plain truth that 545 people exercise the power of the federal government, then it must follow that what exists is what they want to exist.

If the tax code is unfair, it's because they want it unfair.

If the budget is in the red, it's because they want it in the red.

If the Marines are in  IRAQ , it's because they want them in  IRAQ .


There are no insoluble government problems.

Do not let these 545 people shift the blame to bureaucrats, whom they hire and whose jobs they can abolish; to lobbyists, whose gifts and advice they can reject; to regulators, to whom they give the power to regulate and from whom they can take this power.

Above all, do not let them con you into the belief that there exists disembodied mystical forces like "the economy," "inflation" or "politics" that prevent them from doing what they take an oath to do.

Those 545 people; and they alone, are responsible.

They, and they alone, have the power.

They and they alone, should be held accountable by the people who are their bosses - provided the voters have the gumption to manage their own employees.
 



 

So, you believe everything you read in an email?

[digginfool]

I haven't expressed a view one way or the other, Fish.  I think the question is, do you believe it?  It's a very poignant view of Washington, if you ask me, but only you can decide if you want to lend it any credence.