Say It Ain't So Already

How Can 58% of Americans Approve of Budget Deal If We Don’t Know the Details?

April 11, 2011 at 4:11 PM Leave a comment

Bear in mind that we still have no idea what the specifics are of the budget deal brokered at the last minute on Friday.  I’ve read and heard some guesses that the details will be released late this evening.  So this makes no sense:

A new CNN/Opinion Research Poll released today found that the budget deal that avoided a federal government shutdown is viewed as big win for President Obama with the American people. 58% of Americans approve of the budget deal, and the President got the lion’s share of the credit 48%-35% over the Republicans.

The CNN/Opinion Research Poll painted a picture of country that really didn’t want the government to shutdown. 63% of respondents would have considered a shutdown either a crisis or a major problem. From this viewpoint the budget agreement was viewed as a positive, and widely approved of by a margin of 58%-38%. President Obama got much of the credit for avoiding the shutdown. 48% of those polled believed that Obama and the Democrats deserve the credit for the deal, 35% credited the Republicans, and 11% felt that the credit should be shared.

Obama personally received a 54% approval rating for his handling of the budget negotiations. The Republicans were given a 54% disapproval rating for their handling of negotiations.

Given that 76% of respondents said that Obama didn’t give up too much to get the deal, and 67% also believed that Republicans did not give up too much, it is safe to say that a majority of Americans view this as a fair deal.

Go to the link above (pdf) to see the poll questions themselves.  Yes, they actually asked if Obama and/or the Republicans “gave up too much,” even though we don’t know what either of them gave up.

Ridiculous.

Entry filed under: CNN / TimeWarner, Democrats, Including Blue Dogs & "Liberals", Our Tax Dollars, President Barack H. Obama and Co., Republicans, Including Wingers & "Moderates". Tags: .