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Rasmussen Reports Polls: An Economically Misinformed America

In polls taken today by Rasmussen Reports, 44% of Americans said that they think the economic conditions in the U.S. are getting worse. You may think this number seems a little high, and you’d be right. You may think that this number portrays an economy in the deepest depths of a downturn, not an economy clearly emerging from one, and you’d be right.

In an identical poll taken earlier in the Obama administration by Rasmussen Reports, the numbers came out the same. 44% thought that the economy was getting worse. That poll was taken in April of 2009. The Center for American Progress reports that, at the time that poll was taken, one in nine mortgages were either delinquent or in foreclosure. Real GDP was decreasing at a rate of over 6% annually, and credit card defaults accounted for over 6% of all credit card debt. 663,000 jobs had just been lost in March of ’09, with an unemployment rate of 8.5% that would continue to climb for two more years. Those are numbers that should elicit fear out of half of the country. 

Compare those numbers with the current ones. The most recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics illustrates 38 straight months of job growth, with 175,000 new jobs created in February of 2014. We now have an unemployment rate of just 6.7%, which has continuously dropped since 2011, when it got up above 9%. The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports that real GDP increased 2.4% annually in the fourth quarter of 2013, after increasing 4.1% annually in the third quarter. The housing and credit markets have both rebounded, and are continuing to rebound, from the depths of their respective crises. 

These two sets of numbers tell vastly different stories. One tells us of an economy in the midst of disaster, the other tells us of clear and tangible economic progress. Why is almost half of America oblivious to these painfully obvious truths? It can’t be that they don’t pay attention to economic news; in the same poll 76% said that the economy was a very important issue to them, and 40% said it was their top issue. Many of these people will be voting in 2014 and 2016 solely on the economy. How can it be that they are so misinformed? The answer opens up another question. How are some in Washington so willing to misrepresent and warp the truth about our nation’s economic health? Public relations victories have become the endgame for conservatives in Congress, and lying to their constituents has become a commonly accepted tactic in that pursuit. A misinformed populace is a dangerous populace.

To see the extensive Rasmussen Reports polling data, click here: 

http://www.rasmussenreports.com/platinum/by_the_numbers2/by_the_numbers

Max Horvath is Co-Editor-in-Chief of P.O. Box