Satisfaction with govt lowest since 1971
With the US government shutdown lingering, US citizens' satisfaction with the government has dipped to its lowest point since 1971, according to a Gallup poll released on Thursday.
Only 18 percent of US citizens are satisfied with the way the nation is being governed, down 14 percentage points from last month before the partial government shutdown began. This was the lowest rating of the US government since Gallup began taking the survey in 1971.
The Oct 3-6 poll, conducted in the first week of the government shutdown, found that Democrats are more likely satisfied with the government (28 percent) than are Republicans (8 percent) and independents (15 percent).
The previous lowest rating of the US government was 19 percent in September 2011, just after the US government reached a last-minute agreement with Congress on raising the nation's debt ceiling.
This poll was the latest in a series of reports underscoring the negative impact the shutdown is having on US citizens' attitudes toward their government, Gallup said.
Another poll released on Wednesday by Gallup showed that the dysfunctional government became the top concern for US citizens, as 33 percent of them expressed their disappointment with the government shutdown. This is the highest percentage in Gallup's polling history since 1939.
The economy was the second biggest concern for US citizens, with 19 percent of those surveyed dissatisfied, followed by unemployment (12 percent), the deficit (12 percent) and healthcare (12 percent), it found.
The partial US government shutdown resulted from the Congress' failure to pass a stopgap budget bill to fund the government for fiscal 2014 before the Sept 30 deadline.
(China Daily 10/12/2013 page6)
