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."
Most Voters Think House GOP Likely To Disappoint By 2012
Hold the celebration. Most voters expected Republicans to win control of the House of Representatives on Election Day, but nearly as many expect to be disappointed with how they perform by the time the 2012 elections roll around.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds, in fact, that 59% of Likely U.S. Voters think it is at least somewhat likely that most voters will be disappointed with Republicans in Congress before the next national elections. That includes 38% who say it is Very Likely.
Thirty-three percent (33%) say it's unlikely most voters will feel that way about the new majority party in the House, but only five percent (5%) say it's Not At All Likely. (To see survey question wording, click here .)
Voters overwhelmingly believe the new Republican-controlled House is likely to vote to repeal the unpopular national health care law . They're less confident that taxes and government spending will go down with the GOP in charge of the House.
Just before Election Day, most voters weren't convinced that there will be a big change in their lives if Republicans won control of Congress .
Scott Rasmussen sounded the alarm in a column in the Wall Street Journal this week, noting that Democrats lost because they ignored the warning signs from voters on issues like spending and health care. Republicans, he explained, are well-advised not to make that same mistake.
The survey of 1,000 Likely U.S. Voters was conducted on November 1-2, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC . See methodology .
Voters certainly weren't surprised by the outcome in the House on Election Day. Seventy-eight percent (78%) said it was at least somewhat likely that the GOP would win control of the House in the survey taken Monday and Tuesday night. That included 45% who said it was Very Likely.
In January of this year, only 61% said Republican control of the House was likely, come November . But that was before Democrats passed the health care bill in March.
Rasmussen Reports telephone exit polling found that 59% of those who voted on Election Day favor repeal of that law, including 48% who Strongly Favor it. This echoes what we have found in surveys every week since March.
Fifty-four percent (54%) of Republican voters, not surprisingly, believe it's unlikely that most voters will be disappointed with how their party performs in Congress, while 81% of Democrats and 54% of voters not affiliated with either party disagree. Yet while only seven percent (7%) of Republicans think voter disappointment is Not Very Likely, 69% of Democrats and 29% of unaffiliateds say it's Very Likely.
But then in June, 72% of Republican voters said, as they had in previous surveys, that most GOP members of Congress have lost touch with the party base throughout the nation over the past several years . It will be telling if that number goes down as the new infusion of GOP congressmen make themselves heard.
Congressional Republicans in late September issued a Pledge to America that promised to cut taxes, reduce government spending and end the $787 billion economic stimulus plan. But voters by a 50% to 32% margin view the Pledge as a campaign gimmick rather than a serious policy document. Still, 53% say it is at least somewhat likely that Republicans will do what they promise in the Pledge if they take control of the Congress away from the Democrats.
As the election results indicate, voters certainly weren't happy with the current Democratic-run Congress. Just 12% of voters said prior to the election that Congress is doing a good or excellent job .