The nation is losing confidence in President Barack Obama and his administration with every passing month, according to
The New York Times.
During the six years that Obama has been in charge, the country has been caught up in series of government scandals or crises, according to a news analysis by the liberal-leaning newspaper.
The "missteps" have included the IRS targeting conservative groups, the revelations surrounding the massive collection of data by the National Security Agency, the failure of the Secret Service to guard the president, and the Border Patrol's inability to stop children from entering illegally, says the Times.
Now a new crisis has erupted that has fueled the lack of trust in Obama’s administration — the threat of an Ebola outbreak within the country.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had long been considered a highly regarded institution. But a new CBS News poll has found that only 37 percent of Americans thought the agency is doing a good job, down 23 percent from a year ago, according to the Times.
The survey also showed that out of nine agencies studied, seven that were viewed favorably by a majority of Americans last year now had plunged below 50 percent. The FBI was the only agency that was still regarded highly by a majority of respondents, and that was by just 51 percent.
"As Bill Clinton used to say, most Americans start out thinking the federal government couldn’t run a two-car funeral," said Bruce Reed, a former White House official under Obama. “Now they worry that one of the two cars should have been recalled and the other can’t go anywhere because Congress is still fighting over whether to fix the road."
But Americans are not just dissatisfied with the government's agencies. They are also disillusioned with its leader, who is at or near his lowest approval ratings due to his handling of the country’s woes, the Times’ Peter Baker writes in his analysis.
Baker noted that the one mitigating factor for Obama is that Congress, “gripped by gridlock, is held in even lower regard,” with its approval rating in single digits.
"In taking office during two overseas wars and the Great Recession, President Obama set out to restore society’s frayed faith in its public institutions, saying that the question was not whether government was too big or small, 'but whether it works,'" Baker writes.
"Six years later, Americans seem more dubious than ever that it really does."
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