Just as things looked brighter for Obama, Americans' approval of his deficit handling craters

Oh, no! What a mid-week bummer for the White House.

Just when Americans appeared to be buying the rhetorical hoh-hah about President Obama realizing he had drifted way too far to the left side of the country's political highway, now these silly folks who think you should only spend money you actually have come back and spank Obama for his inattention to this mushrooming federal deficit business.

You know, the one that's helped push the national debt up more than $3,000,000,000,000 since the Democrat first took his coat off in the Oval Office? The problem that has caused that debt to grow this much every second in recent months?

A new Gallup Poll out this morning finds nearly seven-in-ten Americans disapprove of....

...Obama's handling -- or, rather, lack of handling -- of the federal deficit. That disapproval is up from 64% in November.

Worse, the approval of his deficit unhandling has plummeted 16%, or five points, from 32 down to 27.

Gallup reports, "Pres. Barack Obama's approval rating for handling the federal budget deficit has gone from bad to worse in recent months, even as his ratings on all other major national issues have generally held steady."

The president's supporters had begun to sense more optimism about the $1 billion 2012 reelection campaign as his general approval crept past 50% after long dwelling in the 40's.

Indeed, the Chicagoan has more job approval now over foreign affairs (48 approve, 45 disapprove) than other matters. Handling the Egypt situation he gets 47 approve to 32 disapprove.

Americans are about evenly split 47-46 on his Afghanistan job and 43-42 on administration energy policies, whatever they are.

But he slips into negative approval territory on money matters: Taxes (42 approve, 54 disapprove), that expensive healthcare plan (40% approve, 56% disapprove) and his alleged handling of the economy (37 approve, 60 disapprove).

The federal budget deficit (27 approve, 68 disapprove) is his worst, Gallup reports. Interestingly, that's because even Democrats are abandoning him on that with less than 60% now supporting him there.

Apparently, Obama's State of the Union vocabulary switch from "spending" to "investing" failed to fool even fellow Democrats.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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Photo: Chile Navy via Associated Press; Larry Downing / Reuters.

Comments

[harkin]

I've been on the road awhile.......when did the LA Times return to publishing the truth?

[Mark Buehner]

Probly doesn't help that he is already balking at the minimal Republican proposals floating around Congress, and he wants to spend 60 billion on choo-choo trains? If Americans wanted them, theyd have them. Just because Europe or China uses them doesn't mean they'll work here. We should be killing Amtrack not expanding it- after all when Joe Biden dies they'll lose half their customer base.

[Red Buttocks]

No one in America is clever enough to see through the most transparent administration in American history.

[Kevin]

Proof once again that his decent (47%) approval ratings are a house of cards.

The “folks” obviously don’t feel (cough cough... the liberal white) guilt by disapproving of his handling on the issues, just when it comes to the man - hence the disparity in overall job vs drill-downed issues.

Look back. No president has ever had such wide margins between overall and specific important issues. Historically they jive pretty well. You might get a couple of points for personality. But not 15-20 points.

But then again this is our first black president. Which is the real reason for wide spread.

[warlord]

Just let him and plugs keep on talking about billions for high speed rail. The people want no more new spending, and these idiots keep trying to shove
stuff down our collective throats. Sounds like political suicide to me.

[Lester]

Raising taxes hurts the economy. It takes money out of the hands of productive people and lets politicians waste it on political favors. So we have only one choice - stop the spending and borrowing.

[Lester]

Raising taxes hurts the economy. It takes money out of the hands of productive people and lets politicians waste it on political favors. So we have only one choice - stop the spending and borrowing.

[Matt]

Lester, you post doesn't make sense. You say raising taxes hurts the economy, so we need to stop spending and borrowing. You should have broken it down differently or picked one to harp on.