Conservatives are very sure of two things about our current economic problems. One is that these problems are mostly President Barack Obama’s fault. The other is that overregulation of the free market is preventing the economy from roaring back to life. A new ABC News/Washington Post poll finds the public disagrees vigorously with both of these conservative nostrums.
Take the idea that our current economic problems can be laid at President Obama’s door. Not so, says the public. Fifty-four percent of the poll’s respondents believed former President George W. Bush deserves the lion’s share of the blame, while just 32 percent thought President Obama is more responsible for these problems.
In the same poll, 56 percent of respondents thought unfairness in our economic system favoring the wealthy is a bigger problem for our country. Just 34 percent saw overregulation of the free market as a bigger problem.
Conservatives can insist all they want that President Obama and interference with the free market are the root of all evil. But the public clearly disagrees.
Ruy Teixeira is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress.