Two-thirds of Americans are “dissatisfied” or downright “angry” about the way the federal government is working, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. On average, the public estimates that 53 cents of every tax dollar they send to Washington is “wasted.”
Despite the disapproval of government, few Americans say they know much about the Tea Party movement, which emerged last year and attracted voters angry at a government they thought was spending recklessly and overstepping its constitutional powers. And the new poll shows that the political standing of former Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, who was the keynote speaker last week at the first National Tea Party Convention, has deteriorated significantly.
Public dissatisfaction with how Washington operates is at its highest level in Post- ABC polling in more than a decade — since the months after the GOP-led government shutdown in 1996 — and negative ratings of the two major parties hover near record highs.
Nearly two-thirds of those polled say they know just some, very little or nothing about what the Tea Party movement stands for. But about 45 percent — and a majority of Republicans and independents — say they agree at least somewhat with the movement on issues.
Although Palin is a Tea Party favorite, her potential as a presidential hopeful takes a hit in the poll. Fifty-five percent had unfavorable views of her, while the percentage holding favorable views was 37, a new low in Post-ABC polling.
The Feb. 4-8 phone poll of 1,004 adults has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
