Poll: US hit by confidence crisis

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=123733&sectionid=3510203

US President Barack Obama grapples with confidence as opinion polls indicate Americans' trust in his administration stands at a near all-time low.

A survey from the Pew Research Center released on Sunday shows nearly 80 percent of Americans do not trust Washington, compared with only 22-percent who say they can trust the federal government almost always or most of the time.

Nearly half of those surveyed complain that the government negatively affects their daily lives.

The poll points to Americans' discontent with the government's unlimited powers with almost one in every three seeing the government as a major threat to their personal freedoms.

The findings from the survey show the Obama administration's policies, such as his controversial healthcare reform and economic stimulus package, are partly to blame for the rise in anti-government sentiment.

"A dismal economy, an unhappy public, bitter, partisan-based backlash and epic discontent with Congress and elected officials," Pew said accounts for what it calls "a perfect storm" of public unrest.

The poll was based on four surveys done from March 11 to April 11 through landlines and cell phones, the largest of which involved 2,500 adults and has a margin of sampling error of 2.5 percentage points.

The other three involved about 1,000 adults each, with a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points.