Gallup: Obama Admin Corruption Making Americans Feel Less Free

Americans feel less free and are more dissatisfied with the “freedom to chose what they do with their lives” since President Barack Obama took office. Gallup concluded that was largely the case due to Obama’s scandals and poor economy.

A Gallup survey found that percentage of Americans who are “satisfied with the freedom to choose what they do with their lives” dropped from 91% in 2006 to 79% in 2013. During that same period, Americans who “dissatisfied with the freedom to choose what they do with their lives more than doubled, from 9% to 21%.”

Gallup attributes the rise in the number of Americans who feel less free to the “perceived widespread corruption in the U.S. government” because of the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups and the National Security Agency spying scandal. In addition, Gallup notes that Americans “not only feel that the U.S. government is performing poorly, as demonstrated by record-low congressional approval ratings, but they also report that the U.S. government itself as one of the biggest problem facing the country today.”

When Obama first took office in 2009, 66% of Americans thought corruption was widespread throughout the government. In 2013, 79% of Americans did.