A new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll reveals that an all-time record of 76% of Americans do not believe their children’s lives will be better than their own. Almost as many respondents, 71%, believe the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction, as compared to 63% only one month ago; 60% believe that direction is plunging downward.
A significant 70% of respondents credit their gloomy outlook to Washington politicians rather than the torpid economy, and 79% dislike the American political system.
Democratic pollster Fred Yang and Republican Bill McInturff conducted the poll. Yang said, “The American public is telling its elected representatives that the economic distress that a significant proportion of them are feeling is directly their fault. The public seems to have moved beyond the plaintive cry of ‘feel our pain’ to the more angry pronouncement of ‘you are causing our pain.'”
Barack Obama’s numbers continue to dive; his approval rating dropped to 40% after registering 41% in a June survey. His 54% disapproval rating ties his previous high. On foreign policy, Obama only gleaned a 36% approval rate with a 60% disapproval rate. Those are the worst marks of his presidency.
When asked which party they preferred to control Congress, a narrow majority preferred the GOP. Women preferred the Democrats by a 51% to 37% margin; men preferred the GOP.
Roughly one quarter of those polled had children with more than $5,000 in student-loan debt; 25% admitted that someone living with them needed a second job to pay the bills.
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