By Greg Campbell
TPNN Contributor
According to Gallup polls, Americans are feely less rosy about America than they were during the Bush years. While five years ago, during President George W. Bush’s administration, Gallup reported that 55% of Americans were upbeat about the state of the nation. Now, only 39% state that they’re happy with how things are.
“U.S. President Barack Obama begins his second term at a time when Americans are as negative about the state of the country and its prospects going forward as they have been in more than three decades. Fewer than four in 10 Americans (39%) rate the current status of the U.S. at the positive end of a zero to 10 scale. This is about the same as in 2010, but it is fewer than have said so at any point since 1979. As they usually are, Americans are more upbeat in their predictions of where the U.S. will be in five years (48% positive), but this is also lower than at any time since 1979. Fifty-five percent of Americans say the state of the nation five years ago was positive.”
This comes at a time when America has little to be cheery about. The national unemployment hovers around 8%, millions are still out of work and prices continue to rise on essentials like groceries and gas. Worse yet, government is constantly in gridlock and have grown bitter in their fighting. America is over $16.4 trillion in debt, America is on track for its fifth-straight year of a deficit in excess of a trillion dollars and despite tax hikes on job producers, America has yet to see any meaningful spending cuts and likely will not in the near future. Meanwhile, the Senate has yet to pass a budget in the last three years.
The Bush years entailed climbing military spending and its own economic turmoil; however, through comparison, the economic failures of government over the last four years has ushered in a new era of quasi-nostalgia for the years where America saw only half-trillion dollar deficits and a national debt that was nowhere near the $16.4 trillion ceiling America broke through earlier this month.
Still, while Americans seemed happier with the state of the country during Bush’s years, one man, Illinois State Senator Barack Obama, was decidedly unhappy with, ironically enough, Bush’s fiscal irresponsibility.
In 2003, the Illinois State Senator claimed that President Bush’s $300 billion deficit, “underscores the recklessness of the George W. Bush administration and the Republican Congress.” However, since Obama’s election, America has seen year after year of deficits that top $1 trillion.
