Feds Can't Fix Economy: Poll

Another day, another poll about how much we hate Congress. This latest poll shows, in particular, that just one in four of us believes the federal government can fix the economy. That's down 21 points from October, notes the Washington Post. And a whopping 71% of respondents believe S&P was right to take the United States' policymaking process to task when it downgraded our credit rating—although only 52% believe the downgrade was fair.

More than 70% of Americans believe the federal government is "mostly focused on the wrong things," but the majority of Republicans blame the Democrats for that problem, and vice versa. Among independents, 43% blame both sides. A full 78% aren't happy with the political system. Even so, 77% agree that "whatever its faults, the United States still has the best system of government in the world."