Public's Confidence In The President & Party Congressional Leaders On The Economy

The accepted "wisdom" of Beltway political pundits is that while the public may agree with the Democrats on some issues, they prefer the Republicans when it comes to fixing the economy. I have always found this to be hard to believe, since it is the GOP's failed "trickle-down" economic policy that got us into this economic mess in the first place. Now there is evidence that the public is smarter than those pundits give them credit for.

The chart above is made from yearly Gallup Polls -- the latest being done between April 3rd and 6th of a random national sample of 1,026 adults, with a margin of error of 5 points. The sample and margin of error is similar for the previous years.

As recently as 2011, the Republicans did have a slight edge in public confidence in how to deal with the economy. But that has disappeared. And while the public is angry at the failure of both parties to compromise and fix the economy, they are most angry with the Republican leaders in Congress. They give an 11 point edge to the Democrats (35% to 24%). And while the Republicans like to talk about how unpopular the president's economic policies are, the truth is that he has huge 18 point lead over them.

Personally, I hope the Republicans are silly enough to run on their same old economic policy of take from the poor and middle class to give more to the rich. "Trickle-down" just doesn't fool anyone anymore (except for the teabaggers, who never seem to learn).