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Gallup: At Least 25% of Uninsured Americans Say They Will Stay That Way

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Twenty-five percent of uninsured Americans say they will pay a fine rather than purchase health insurance in 2014, according to a newly released Gallup Poll.

Another 65 percent said they are more likely to purchase health insurance than pay a fine. Under Obamacare, people may sign up for insurance on one of the new exchanges; or they may get coverage through their employer, from Medicaid or Medicare, or by purchasing a plan outside the exchanges.

When Gallup asked uninsured people if they would turn to the new exchanges, 36 percent said no, they do not plan to get health insurance through a state or federal health insurance exchange in 2014. Forty-eight percent of the uninsured said yes, they would buy insurance on one of the exchanges; and 17 percent either hadn’t decided or had no opinion.

According to Gallup, the low level of familiarity with the exchanges may explain why less than half of the uninsured said they will get health insurance for 2014 specifically through a state or federal health insurance exchange.

The Affordable Care Act requires most Americans to buy health insurance by Jan. 1, 2014, or pay a fine. People who don’t get insurance through their employer may purchase it on one of the new health care exchanges — some run by the states, and others run by the federal government.

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Americans’ Belief That Gov’t Is Too Powerful at Record Level

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Six in 10 Americans (60%) believe the federal government has too much power, one percentage point above the previous high recorded in September 2010. At least half of Americans since 2005 have said the government has too much power. Thirty-two percent now say the government has the right amount of power. Few say it has too little power.

america's perception

These most recent data come from Gallup’s Governance survey, conducted Sept. 5-8. The 7% who feel the government has too little power has been mostly steady since Gallup started tracking the measure regularly in 2002.

Republicans and Democrats Divided on Views of Government

This new high encompasses Republicans (81%), who are now more likely than at any time since 2002 to say the government has too much power, and Democrats (38%), who now are more likely to say this than at any time since President Barack Obama took office in 2009.

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Gallup: Unemployment Rate Jumps from 7.7% to 8.9% in 30 Days

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Photo Credit: Reuters

Photo Credit: Reuters

By John Nolte.

Outside of the federal government’s Bureau of Labor statistics, the Gallup polling organization also tracks the nation’s unemployment rate. While the BLS and Gallup findings might not always perfectly align, the trends almost always do and the small statistical differences just haven’t been worthy of note. But now Gallup is showing a sizable 30 day jump in the unemployment rate, from 7.7% on July 21 to 8.9% today.

This is an 18-month high.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Number of Long-Term Unemployed ‘Unprecedented’ Under Obama

By Bill McMorris.

The economy has seen an “unprecedented” number of long-term unemployed under the Obama administration, according to a liberal think tank, and economists say plans pursued by Democrats in Washington are unlikely to curb the problem.

Nearly 5 million workers are classified as long-term unemployed, while 900,000 more have stopped looking for work altogether, according to a new series of reports issued by the Urban Institute.

Three percent of the labor force has been out of work for more than six months, an improvement of only one percentage point since unemployment spiked in October 2009, according to the study.

“That long-term unemployment would rise during a recession is not at all surprising, but the extent of the increase and its persistently high level since the start of the recovery are both troubling and unprecedented,” the report states. “The U.S. economy is now well into its fourth year of recovery, the unemployment rate is below 8 percent, yet the long-term share of unemployment is still near 40 percent.”

The center-left think tank said that those startling figures are unlikely to change unless the United States can achieve dramatic job growth, rather than the middling 2 percent overall economic growth figures the Obama administration has averaged.

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Gallup: Majority Would Back Gay Marriage National Referendum

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A majority of Americans would back a ballot initiative legalizing gay marriage in all 50 states, according to a new poll released by Gallup on Monday.

According to the survey, 52 percent would back a hypothetical referendum allowing same-sex couples to wed, while 43 percent would oppose it.

Still, support for the measure varies widely depending on demographic group. Some 77 percent of liberals and 70 percent of Democrats say they would support such a measure, but among those who attend church weekly, just 23 percent would. Only three out of 10 conservatives and Republicans would back the measure, and 38 percent of Protestants and Republicans say they would.

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Gallup: Americans More Pro-Life than Pro-Choice

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photo credit: wht_wolf9653Many Republican insiders continue to push the narrative that the GOP lost in 2012 because of the Hispanic vote and social issues, rather than because a badly broken Republican nomination process produced a candidate who didn’t emphasize Obamacare and didn’t motivate downscale rural white Americans to vote. In light of this ongoing debate, it’s worth revisiting Gallup’s illuminating polling on abortion.

Gallup’s most recent polling on the issue, taken this spring, indicates that more Americans actually regard themselves as “pro-life” than “pro-choice.” According to the poll, 48 percent of Americans say they are “pro-life,” while 45 percent say they are “pro-choice.” What’s more, opposition to abortion is rather plainly on the rise, as those numbers were effectively flipped ten years ago — and as, in the mid-1990s, the number of people who considered themselves “pro-choice” outpaced the number who considered themselves “pro-life” by about 20 percentage points.

Another finding from Gallup’s polling, however, is perhaps even more illuminating. Those who work in America’s newsrooms are overwhelmingly in favor of abortion’s legality…

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71% of Americans Believe Nation’s Founders Would Be Disappointed With US

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As the United States celebrates Independence Day, most of its adult residents continue to say they are proud to be an American, including 57% who are extremely proud and 28% who are very proud. This high level of pride in being an American has varied only moderately over the past 12 years since the question was first asked, but has been lower since 2005 than it was in the years prior…

Conservatives and Republicans are also slightly more likely to say they are proud than are liberals and Democrats…

Despite their widespread national pride, Americans evince a much more negative response when asked if the signers of the Declaration of Independence would be pleased or disappointed by the way the United States has turned out. Seventy-one percent of Americans say the signers would be disappointed, while 27% say they would be pleased.

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Only 9% of Employers Say Obamacare Will be Good for Their Businesses

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Photo Credit: Weekly Standard

Photo Credit: Weekly Standard

A new Gallup poll of small-business owners indicates that Obamacare is having a dramatic and deleterious effect on Americans’ employment prospects. More than 40 percent of small-business owners say that Obamacare has caused them to freeze hiring, while nearly a fifth say that it has caused them to cut existing workers. According to the poll, 41 percent of small-business owners have frozen hiring, while 19 percent have “reduced the number of employees [they] have in [their] business as a specific result of the Affordable Care Act [Obamacare]” (italics added).

The Gallup poll was commissioned by Littler Mendelson, a firm specializing in employment law. Steven Friedman, an attorney for the firm, said of the results, “We were startled.” He added that these are “some pretty startling answers.”

Just 9 percent of the 603 employers surveyed by Gallup said Obamacare will be good for their business…

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Crisis of Trust: Less Than One in Four Americans Trust Newspapers

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Americans’ confidence in newspapers fell slightly to 23% this year, from 25% in 2012 and 28% in 2011.

gallup poll

The percentage of Americans saying they have “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in newspapers has been generally trending downward since 1979, when it reached a high of 51%.

Newspapers rank near the bottom on a list of 16 societal institutions Gallup measured in a June 1-4 survey. Television news is tied with newspapers on the list, with 23% of Americans also expressing confidence in it. That is up slightly from the all-time low of 21% found last year. The only institutions television news and newspapers beat out this year are big business, organized labor, Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs), and Congress.

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Chris Christie the Most-Favored Republican – Among Democrats!

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

According to a newly released Gallup poll, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is the most-favored Republican recent newsmaker and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is the least-favored–among Democratic respondents.

The poll sought to measure the favorable/unfavorable sentiments toward five Republicans Gallup believes may run for president in 2016.

Conducted June 1-4. the survey asked: [P]lease say if you have a favorable or unfavorable opinion of these people–or if you have never heard of them.” It then listed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul.

Among Democrats, Christie had the most favorable responses. Fifty-four percent of Democrats said they had a favorable view of Christie, compared to 21 percent who had a favorable view of Rubio, 17 percent who had a favorable view of Ryan, 16 percent who had a favorable view of Paul, and 11 percent who had a favorable view of Cruz.

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Americans’ Confidence in Congress Falls to Lowest on Record

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Americans’ confidence in Congress as an institution is down to 10%, ranking the legislative body last on a list of 16 societal institutions for the fourth straight year. This is the lowest level of confidence Gallup has found, not only for Congress, but for any institution on record. Americans remain most confident in the military, at 76%.

Photo Credit: Gallup

Small business and the police also continue to rank highly, with 65% and 57% of Americans, respectively, expressing “a great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in these institutions. Joining Congress at the bottom of the list are Health Maintenance Organizations (HMOs) and organized labor. Congress’ low position is further underscored when one looks at the percentage of Americans who have little or no confidence in each institution. The slight majority of Americans, 52%, have this level of confidence in Congress, compared with 31% for HMOs.

Americans’ confidence in several institutions measured in the June 1-4 Gallup poll has shifted since last year. Americans have become more confident in banks, organized religion, and public schools, and less confident in the U.S. medical system, the Supreme Court, and Congress.

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