Americans, Again, Say Government Is Shockingly Incompetent
J.D. Tuccille|Jan. 2, 2014 3:31 pm
U.S. GovernmentSurprisingly, in the year of Obamacare, NSA snooping, and skyrocketing federal debt, Americans express little confidence in government and consider it largely incapable of addressing the problems and issues facing the country. OK, that’s not surprising at all—actually, it’s a predictable result of polling in a year when goverment officials seem to have set out to demonstrate just how untrustworthy and incompetent they can be when given half a chance. Other recent polls have found that Americans consider government to be both burdensome and dangerous, so these latest AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research numbers continue a trend in disillusioned, yet realistic, assessments of the coercive institutions of the state.
According to The People’s Agenda: America’s Priorities and Outlook for 2014, 70 percent of respondents have little or no confidence “in the ability of the FEDERAL government to make progress on the important problems and issues facing the country.” Fifty-three percent express similarly low esteem in the abilities of state governments, though local government inspires moderate confidence.
https://reason.com/blog/2014/01/02/americans-again-say-government-is-shocki