Friday, December 16, 2011

Who's the biggest threat to the country? Big government, big business, or big labor?

If you believe big government is the biggest threat to our nation in the future, you share company with lots of Americans, 64% of Americans to be exact. That's the finding of a recent Gallup poll. It's one point shy of the all-time record set in 2000. It's up from 35% in 1965.

Business dropped from 32% in 2009 to 26% today. And labor is at 8%. Pretty much unchanged. It was at 29% in 1965.

Maybe the biggest surprise were the numbers among Democrats. 48% of Democrats see government as the greatest threat to our nation, higher than the 44% who see big business as the biggest threat.

Almost half of Democrats now say big government is the biggest threat to the nation, more than say so about big business, and far more than were concerned about big government in March 2009. The 32% of Democrats concerned about big government at that time -- shortly after President Obama took office -- was down significantly from a reading in 2006, when George W. Bush was president.

By contrast, 82% of Republicans and 64% of independents today view big government as the biggest threat, slightly higher percentages than Gallup found in 2009.
The question remains - will this concern translate into efforts to rein in government's power.

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