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Bush's approval rating dips to 44%
Associated Press
4/9/2005
WASHINGTON - The public's dissatisfaction with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress is growing as their poll numbers drop amid record high gasoline prices, war in Iraq, the Social Security debate and the Terri Schiavo case.
The Republican president's job approval is at 44 percent, with 54 percent disapproving. Only 37 percent have a favorable opinion of the work being done by Congress, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.
Bush's job approval was at 49 percent in January, the same month in which he was sworn in for a second term, while Congress' was at 41 percent.
The president claimed indifference when asked about his falling ratings. "Some of them were going up the other day," he said. "You can find them going up and you can find them going down. You can pretty much find out what you want in polls is my point."
Asked about the reasons for Bush's declining ratings, Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio cited uphill efforts to change Social Security, the Schiavo case and "economic jitters" heightened by rising oil prices.
Republicans in Congress and the president moved quickly during the Easter recess to approve legislation intended to prolong the life of Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died after her feeding tube was disconnected.
The percentage of those supporting Bush's handling of domestic issues dipped between March and April, to 42 percent for the economy and 38 percent for issues such as education and health care, according to the poll conducted for the Associated Press by Ipsos-Public Affairs. Support for the president's approach to his top domestic priority, Social Security, remained at 36 percent, while 58 percent oppose it.
"The public hasn't bought into the idea of private accounts and the necessity of them," said Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Republicans argue that young adults are supposed to benefit the most from Bush's Social Security proposal, but 54 percent of that group opposes the president on that issue.
The poll of 1,001 adults was taken April 4-6 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
Associated Press
4/9/2005
WASHINGTON - The public's dissatisfaction with President Bush and the Republican-led Congress is growing as their poll numbers drop amid record high gasoline prices, war in Iraq, the Social Security debate and the Terri Schiavo case.
The Republican president's job approval is at 44 percent, with 54 percent disapproving. Only 37 percent have a favorable opinion of the work being done by Congress, according to an AP-Ipsos poll.
Bush's job approval was at 49 percent in January, the same month in which he was sworn in for a second term, while Congress' was at 41 percent.
The president claimed indifference when asked about his falling ratings. "Some of them were going up the other day," he said. "You can find them going up and you can find them going down. You can pretty much find out what you want in polls is my point."
Asked about the reasons for Bush's declining ratings, Republican pollster Tony Fabrizio cited uphill efforts to change Social Security, the Schiavo case and "economic jitters" heightened by rising oil prices.
Republicans in Congress and the president moved quickly during the Easter recess to approve legislation intended to prolong the life of Schiavo, the brain-damaged Florida woman who died after her feeding tube was disconnected.
The percentage of those supporting Bush's handling of domestic issues dipped between March and April, to 42 percent for the economy and 38 percent for issues such as education and health care, according to the poll conducted for the Associated Press by Ipsos-Public Affairs. Support for the president's approach to his top domestic priority, Social Security, remained at 36 percent, while 58 percent oppose it.
"The public hasn't bought into the idea of private accounts and the necessity of them," said Charles Franklin, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Republicans argue that young adults are supposed to benefit the most from Bush's Social Security proposal, but 54 percent of that group opposes the president on that issue.
The poll of 1,001 adults was taken April 4-6 and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
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