Poll: Americans hurting from rising gas prices

CBS News

Amid a national spike in gas prices, two in three Americans say the hike in costs is causing them financial hardship at home, according to a CBS News poll released Wednesday.

The poll, conducted between February 24 and 27, surveyed more than a thousand adults nationwide as gas prices continued to climb to an average of $3.731 per gallon, according to AAA's Fuel Gauge Report. A month ago, the average cost was more than $0.30 cheaper, at $3.429 dollars a gallon.

Sixty-seven percent of Americans say high gas prices have caused a financial hardship in their households; of those, 38 percent say that hardship is serious. Thirty-two percent of Americans say they had not suffered financial hardship to do the rising costs of gas.

Americans with lower household incomes are especially likely to feel pain at the pump. Forty-nine percent of those earning less than $50,000 say hikes in gas prices have caused them serious financial hardship; among those earning between $50,000 and $100,000, only 29 percent say the same thing. That number falls even further to 22 percent among those with incomes of $100,000 and higher.

At 37 percent, Republicans were more likely to say that they had experienced serious hardship due to the rising prices than were Democrats (28 percent), although 32 percent of people in both parties said the price hikes had caused them difficulties of some nature.

There are regional differences as well. Americans living in the West (43 percent) are most likely to suffer seriously from high gas prices; those in the Northeast (27 percent) are the least likely to suffer to the same degree. Thirty-nine percent of Americans in both the Midwest and South said high gas prices had caused them serious economic hardship.

Americans are not particularly optimistic about gas prices dropping anytime soon. Eighty-six percent say they expect prices to go up; only six percent anticipate that they will decrease, and five percent say they think the prices will stay the same going forward.

A majority of people do think that a president has some control over the situation. Fifty-four percent say gas prices are something a president can do a lot about, while 34 percent think it is beyond any president's control.

There are partisan differences on this question, however. Republicans (71 percent) are more likely to say the president, now a Democrat, can do something significant to control the price of gas, while Democrats are more divided. Forty-two percent of Democrats say a president can do a lot about gas prices; 43 percent say it is beyond his control.

[slatep]

ARE YOU JUST FIGURING THIS OUT.???

[kerrco]

Leaders take responsibility, losers blame others. Gee, who does that sound like!

[magnumdr]

No Crap; The companies buy oil for aoo $1 per gallon. How does it get to $5 per gallon from where it started?. Think about the money being made from Americans in the stock markets from this stealing from the people here.

[erpicferl]

don't worry y'all when newt is pres gas will be 2.50 a gallon promise!

[country_boy1]

Why dont we take the oil off the stock market and set the price like we do for natrual gas and electric. If we let the gas keep going up we will be back into a recession again. nO one will be able to shop or take vacations and What about people on fix income?

[slatep]

Removin oil from the stockmarket is the best idea I've heard yet.

I encourage you to email this to everybody on your list, write your Congressman and go on talk-radio to pursue this option.

I know I am.!!!

[nonpolitico]

Perhaps if we took a close look at the "electric car" angle, we could discover what was carefully hidden from citizens.
The EU has a committee which looked at electric autos.
They concluded that, as an "interim" measure they were ok, but on the negative side of the balance sheet, they discovered that the batteries powering the car, do not last the life of the car, as your average Chevy power plant does.
Batteries very expensive to replace.
Also, charging points?
Calculate how many gas stations there are in US (coast to coast), and work out how long it took to build them all.
THEN think of the total cost of a dedicated power line to all States with the generating capacity NEEDED to guarantee every electic car had refuelling access country wide (Think of Alaska for instance).
NOW, go ask the global warming agenda guys HOW MUCH this would all cost....Get the picture??
We have been sold a big lie for over 10 years, with no-one tending to detail.
USA has enough natural resources to last over 100 years.
(That is of course if what we drill gets sold majority in USA)
Now for a bit of speculation, (after all the global warming crowd do enough)!
Seeing as NASA has sent a Mars mission with a rover powered by a Small Nuclear Power plant, and that power plant is small enough to fit in a Dodge Ram, why not try an experiment with the Car Industry??
If we could build for the future on Mars, why not the future in USA??
After all no need to refuel!!!!
Think OPTIONS, not DOGMA.
The USA will still lead the world when the Crash is over.
Why??? Cos USA has Freedom of thought...so far...
So remember, in November ABO, get that, ABO!!!!!

[UForgotPoland]

Do Americans realize that gas is a very finite resource? The more you exhaust it the higher the prices will rise!

[nancy_naive]

And yet, we exported 90,000,000 bbls of gasoline last year.

[lami987]

Its easy to lower gas prices in the US if congress is brave enough to go against their big oil bosses. If congress limit and regulate export of US fuel gas prices would drop significantly and quickly. Fuel is the largest US export. Larger than anything else. Every drop of oil produced in Alaska is exported. Oil produced from Keystone pipelines, if built, is also targeted for export. Canada could export the oil (tar sand) themselves but don't want to have a pipeline built on their land so they look to easier politicians to their south. We have plenty of gas. Today we produce more but use less. Our gas shortage is all created by our oil companies aided by their paid politicians.

[sirmarion-2009]

Obama is at fault,and the Democrats know it,all the drilling from the past three years were from the policies Bush put in place.Obama is a liar and the mainstream media is covering for him.