Obama approval rating falls below 50 percent
CBS
Updated 8 p.m. ET
President Obama's approval ratings fell to below 50 percent for the first time since his ratings spiked following the news of the death of Osama bin Laden last month, according to a CBS News poll released on Wednesday.
Just 48 percent of respondents approve of the way he is doing his job, compared to a 57 percent in the days immediately following news of bin Laden's demise.
Obama's approval numbers hovered in the range below 50 percent for most of the past year, though they spiked after the early May announcement that a team of elite Navy SEALs had captured and killed the al Qaeda.
About 79 percent of the poll respondents said the economy is in bad shape, essentially unchanged from April but higher than the 74 percent who reported the condition of economy as poor in January.
Perhaps more disturbing for the White House is that about a third of the people think the economy is headed in the wrong direction.
The U.S. economy added just 54,000 jobs in May, the fewest number of new workers in eight months. And the unemployment rate rose to 9.1 percent from 9.0 percent in April. No president has been re-elected since Franklin Roosevent when unemployment was above 7.2 percent.
It is too early to say whether those job figures are a one-time occurrence or the beginning of a trend, but the overall trendline for perceptions about the direction of the economy is headed downward. Just 21 percent of respondents thought the economy was getting worse in January, compared to 26 percent in March, 39 percent in April and 31 percent in the June poll.
At left, CBS News political correspondent Jan Crawford reports on the poll.And the economy is still far and away the most important issue on voters' minds. Jobs and the economy is the top category for 48 percent of respondents, almost five times as important as the next most important issue: the deficit. Just 10 percent of respondents said the ballooning budget deficit was the top issue. Health care garnered 4 percent, while education was top on the minds of 3 percent of respondents. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan also took 3 percent. Those numbers are essentially unchanged from the prior survey.
The number of respondents who said the country is headed in the wrong direction was about 60 percent, compared to 31 percent who said it is on the right track. Those numbers are nearly identical to the May survey.
The Debt Ceiling and the Deficit
The poll also asked for opinions on the debate in Congress over whether to raise the nation's debt ceiling - the legal limit on how much the federal government can borrow. Sixty-nine percent of Americans in the poll say the debt ceiling should not be raised, while just 24 percent say that it should be raised.
A third of Americans think spending cuts should be part of any agreement on the debt ceiling, but more - 56 percent -- say the issue is so serious it should be decided on its own.
CBS
But the public expresses some concern about the economic consequences that could result from not raising the debt ceiling. Seventy-two percent think it is at least somewhat likely that the economy will take a severe downturn if the ceiling is not raised, but just 25 percent think that's very likely to occur. More than half say it is at least somewhat likely that Social Security, Medicare and veterans' payments won't be made, including 19 percent who think that's very likely to happen. Another 38 percent say the stoppage of payments for these programs is not very likely to happen if the nation's debt ceiling is not raised.
Those who think it is very likely that an economic downturn will occur if the debt ceiling isn't raised are more likely to support increasing it.
However, a majority of Americans (68 percent) say the debt ceiling will probably be raised. Even opponents of raising it expect that to happen.
Asked specifically about the way officials in Washington are handling the deficit, respondents gave poor marks across the board. About 63 percent of respondents disapproved of the way Obama was handling the issue, in line with the grade for congressional Democrats. Republicans in Congress fared slightly worse, with a 70 percent disapproval rating.
And while jobs and the economy trump all other issues as the nation's most pressing problem, when Americans are asked directly about the seriousness of the federal budget deficit, 75 percent say it is a very serious problem for the country right now - the highest percentage since CBS News began asking the question in 2003.
For months, lawmakers in Washington have been debating how best to lower the budget deficit. The public is now divided over whether or not changes to the Medicare program will be necessary in order to reduce the deficit. Forty-six percent think changes will be necessary, down from 57 percent in April, but 43 percent think changes to Medicare won't be necessary. A majority of Americans (61 percent) say it won't be necessary to raise their taxes in order to lower the deficit.
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Read the Complete Poll (PDF)
This poll was conducted among a random sample of 1,024 adults nationwide, interviewed by telephone June 3-7, 2011. The error due to sampling for results based on the entire sample could be plus or minus three percentage points. The error for subgroups is higher. This poll release conforms to the Standards of Disclosure of the National Council on Public Polls.
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based on Obama's approval rating he is running about twice as good as his predecessor --
LOL!
Not in his first 30 months in office........
Your revolution is over.
And it's not good enough.
He is a failure as a leader.
Time to send him back to teaching with the rest of his economic team who failed us.
Sure hope the republicans can pull something out of their hats.
Just as soon as he can raise that pesky debt ceiling over his head and get back to borrowing foreign money.
55 days to America's debt crisis and instead of working on a plan for the US, Obama is pledging to save Greece.
Either he's the most stupid president in history, or he's out to fulfill Rev. Wright's teachings.
The GOP want corporations to get tax breaks to off-shore American jobs, again creating unemployment.
In Los Angeles, a major supermarket chain has decided to slash the health benefits of their employees, meaning that grocery store clerks will have to cough up $ 450,000,000 for health insurance. That means $ 450,000,000 less for the economy.
Whether it's unemployed teachers or grocery store clerks, you have a large part of the public that is too broke to buy the goods and services that businesses provide. The race to the bottom will also throw more people out of work.
I agree that Obama is running out of options. The truth told. The Republicans want a high unemployment rate so they can win the next election.
Then they will off-shore more jobs, import guest workers who will work for free, and fire more public employees - meaning even higher unemployment than we have now.
Store clerks will have to buy their own insurance like every other American!!!
But wait, they can get OBUMMERCARE!!!
New report says that more than 30% of employers are likely to drop the insurance coverage for their workers and let their workers go buy Obamacare!
As for slashing local and state goverment jobs, they have this pesky little thing called financial restraints governing them. They can's simply print money, kite checks between the fed and treasury or go borrow from China.
Under Obama, we are now actively fighting in FIVE Countries.
Afghanistan
Pakistan
Iraq
Libya
Yemen
Who is next? Syria???
WW III
Is that Obama's plans to boost the economy????
War seems to be the only plan he is working on.
President Obama's bad policies are still his bad policies. As inflation sets in as a result of devaluing the US dollar through record breaking deficit spending, it will hit the poor and those on fixed income (elderly) the worst. President Obama is an inspiring speaker, but his policies are bad. We need a leader who knows how to turn business around, and is not a progressive extremist. Hopefully, one will emerge in 2012.
It should have all gone to the SEALS.
Obama obviously felt proud of himself to reward himself with a very expensive jaunt to Europe..500 Secret Service agents, 6 personal doctors, White House Chefs etc. amd felt free to allow his wife to spend thousands of dollars on lavish gowns, cocktail dresses, jewelry and shoes and lavish State dinners trying to impress foreign dignitaries.
I think he has finally realized he doesn't have the White House all sewn up in 2012 and from now on is just going to continue living the life he thinks he deserves while he still can.
We have Record Unemployment, Foreclosures, Mortgages Under Water, Bankruptcies, Bank Seizures, and a Record number of Americans on Food Stamps. Gasoline is $4.00 a Gallon, headed for $5.00. The Dollar is a joke. And he's running an ILLEGAL WAR OF CHOICE in Libya.
And, his numbers are JUST NOW going under 50%?
Can we get some REAL NUMBERS, please?
Like, what are his numbers when you ignore the RACIST Blacks, in this Country, who are taking the brunt of this Economic Meltdown, but will never turn against him, SOLELY because of the COLOUR OF HIS SKIN.
Martin Luther King Jr. died for NOTHING.