A substantial majority of Americans say President Obama has not developed a strategy to deal with the budget deficit, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll, which also found that support for his plans to overhaul health care, rescue the auto industry and close the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, falls well below his job approval ratings. <...> As Mr. Obama finishes his fifth month in office and assumes greater ownership of the problems he inherited, Americans are alarmed by the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been doled out to boost the economy. A majority said the government should instead focus on reducing the federal deficit. <...> The national telephone poll was conducted Friday through Tuesday with 895 adults, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. <...> "[Guantanamo]'s a bad symbol for our country: Preach one thing and do something else," said Roberta Hall, 73, a Democrat from Barboursville, W.Va. "We can transfer them here. We're good at keeping prisoners. That's what we do best."
As Mr. Obama finishes his fifth month in office and assumes greater ownership of the problems he inherited, Americans are alarmed by the hundreds of billions of dollars that have been doled out to boost the economy. A majority said the government should instead focus on reducing the federal deficit. <...>
The national telephone poll was conducted Friday through Tuesday with 895 adults, and has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. <...>
"[Guantanamo]'s a bad symbol for our country: Preach one thing and do something else," said Roberta Hall, 73, a Democrat from Barboursville, W.Va. "We can transfer them here. We're good at keeping prisoners. That's what we do best."
