Fox News Poll: The Economy is in Bad Shape

The economy is in bad shape, and people are generally bummed about the direction of the country.

Only one in five American voters rates the economy positively: 2 percent “excellent” and 19 percent “good,” according to a new Fox News Poll.

Instead, most think the economy’s in bad shape: 46 percent “only fair” and 33 percent “poor.”

That explains, at least in part, why voters say the economy is the most important issue facing the country right now:  32 percent say so, up from 21 percent in December.

Despite the March 22 Brussels airport bombing, fewer say terrorism is the top issue.  Just 15 percent cite it.  That’s down from 27 percent in mid-December, not long after the December 2 San Bernardino attacks.  Health care is next (9 percent), followed by climate change (7 percent), the federal deficit (7 percent), and race relations (5 percent).

That makes for a blah mood:  58 percent of voters are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country today.  Fewer -- 42 percent -- are satisfied.

It’s been worse.  The record high (or, rather, low) for Barack Obama’s presidency was 76 percent dissatisfied in October 2011.

Currently, voters split on Obama’s performance:  49 percent approve of the job he’s doing, while 47 percent disapprove.  It hasn’t changed much over the last three months.  Last month, 48 percent of voters approved, while 46 percent disapproved.

Meanwhile, partisans are partisans.  Democrats (31 percent) are about four times as likely as Republicans (8 percent) to rate the economy positively.

At the same time, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to cite the economy as the most important problem by a six-point margin.

Twice as many Republicans as Democrats name terrorism as the top issue (22 vs. 11 percent). And 87 percent of Democrats approve of Obama’s performance, while 84 percent of Republicans disapprove.

The Fox News poll is based on landline and cellphone interviews with 1,021 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide and was conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R) from April 11-13, 2016.  The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.