Here’s a bit of news that will ruin the day for Republicans: President Obama’s job approval rating is at its highest level since September 2009, with 55 percent of American approving of the job he’s doing, according to a Bloomberg News poll.
In addition, while Obama is riding relatively high in the ratings, only 35 percent of Americans have a favorable view of the Republican Party, which Bloomberg says is the lowest rating since they began taking the survey in September 2009. The rating for Republicans has dropped 6 points in the last six months.
Poll numbers like these are sure to embolden Obama as he engages Republicans on the budget, immigration reform and gun reform.
On the question of the budget showdown, 43 percent of Americans polled said Republicans are more to blame than Obama for “what’s gone wrong” in Washington, while 34 percent blame Obama — 23 percent aren’t sure which side to blame.
Poll respondent Horace Lee Boyd, 64, a political independent and retired wholesale merchandiser who lives in Cullman, Ala., told Bloomberg News that Republicans “are not willing to work at all with the president. When you cease to compromise, you cease to accomplish anything. We’re at a stalemate. He’s willing to compromise and they aren’t.”
By a margin of 49 percent to 44 percent, more Americans believe the president’s proposals for spending on infrastructure, education and alternative energy are more likely to create jobs than Republican calls to cut spending and taxes to build business confidence and spur employment.
“The Republicans are not offering any new solutions,” poll respondent Cynthia Synos, 62, a political independent who lives in the St. Louis suburb of Greendale, Mo., told Bloomberg. “Their answer is always tax cuts and incentives for business. I’ve never heard them say anything innovative to spark the economy that would help the other 85, 90 percent of people that have to deal with the economy as it is.”
Obama even has more public support for his plan to provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants: 53 percent of Americans are ready to grant legal status to immigrants who arrived in the country illegally.
“If you’d like to have a salad for dinner, you need to have someone who is willing to go pick the lettuce,” poll respondent Pete Cable, a chemist and a Republican who lives in Chapel Hill, N.C., told Bloomberg. “Most of the illegal immigrants who are here are working. They are providing a valuable service. They should be allowed to become citizens.”
But it’s not all wine and roses for Obama: 54 percent of the poll respondents say the country is on the wrong track — although that is the lowest percentage to say so since September 2009.
On the economy, 55 percent of Americans disapprove of Obama’s handling of the federal budget deficit, while 35 percent approve. Among independents, it’s 61 percent disapproving, compared with 26 percent who approve. On the economy overall, 47 percent approve and 49 percent disapprove of the job he’s doing.
“I understand he inherited some of these problems, but he needs to tighten the belt,” poll respondent Rakesh Sethi, 55, a political independent and natural wellness speaker who lives in San Ramon, Calif., told Bloomberg. “You have to live within your means, and when you continue go beyond your means it is a recipe for disaster in the long run.”
The president is strongest in international relations: 52 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of relations with other countries and 59 percent approve of his handling of terrorism.
The poll questioned 1,003 U.S. adults with a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
