Americans more pessimistic
Half say system in need of change or total overhaul
WASHINGTON — Americans enter 2014 with a profoundly negative view of their government, expressing little hope that elected officials can or will solve the nation’s biggest problems, a new poll finds.
The
percentage of Americans saying the nation is heading in the right
direction hasn't topped 50 percent in about a decade. In the new poll,
70 percent lack confidence in the government's ability “to make progress
on the important problems and issues facing the country in 2014.”
The poll comes about two months after partisan gridlock prompted the first government shutdown in 17 years.
