These poll numbers were released earlier today by Rasmussen Reports -- "an electronic publishing firm specializing in the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information."
33% Favor Second Term for Bernanke, 47% Say Geithner Should Go
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Americans are evenly divided over whether Ben Bernanke should stay or go, as the Senate moves closer to a confirmation vote on the embattled chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 33% of adults now think the Senate should confirm Bernanke for another four-year term as Fed chairman. But 34% disagree and say President Obama should name someone else to the post. Another 33% are undecided.
A modest plurality of investors (42%) favor the confirmation of Bernanke.
Forty-seven percent (47%) of Americans say Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner should be replaced with someone new. Only 17% feel otherwise, and 36% are not sure. But 59% of investors believe Geithner should be replaced.
These figures mark a slight increase in support for Bernanke from late November when 21% favored his reappointment, while 41% believed the president should find someone new. In July , Americans were more closely divided: 26% thought his reappointment was a good idea, but 33% felt Obama should name someone else to the job.
Bernanke is better known now which has increased both his favorables and unfavorables. Just 27% don't know enough about him to venture even a soft opinion. This compares to 40% in the previous survey. Thirty percent (30%) now have a favorable opinion of the Fed chairman, while 43% view him unfavorably.
In November, Bernanke's favorables were 21%, and his unfavorables were 38%. Thirty-two percent (32%) still had a favorable view of Bernanke in June, a number that had held roughly steady since the Wall Street meltdown last fall. But his favorables fell to 26% in July.
Americans are unhappier with Geithner. Twenty-two percent (22%) view him favorably, a number comparable to several surveys last year. But 43% now have an unfavorable opinion of the Treasury secretary, up from 35% in mid-November . At that time, 42% said he was doing a poor job handling the credit crisis and the unpopular federal bailout programs .
Thirty-six percent (36%) of adults have no opinion of Geithner one way or the other.
Republicans and adults not affiliated with either major political party are more critical of Bernanke than Democrats are. But all three groups are closely divided over whether he should be confirmed or replaced.
Most Republicans (59%) and unaffiliateds (51%) agree that Geithner should go. Democrats are more narrowly divided.
Bernanke opposes legislation calling for regular audits of the Fed's monetary policies, but 79% of Americans think auditing the Fed is a good idea.
Sixty percent (60%) of Americans believe the Fed chairman is influenced by the president in his decision-marking. Just 20% say the chairman acts independently.
Most Americans favor the new effort by the president to recover government bailout money by taxing the nation's largest banks . They only want banks that received bailouts to pay the tax but think other bailed-out institutions like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac also should be taxed.
In early December, 67% of adults say they expected the unemployment rate to be the same or higher in a year's time.
While the majority of voters believe cutting taxes is better than increasing government spending as a job-creation tool, 72% expect Congress to increase spending instead.
Forty-nine percent (49%) worry, too, that the government will do too much in response to the country's current economic problems, while 39% worry that it won't do enough.