NRO:

A Mere 80% Say They’re Not Better Off Than Four Years Ago

By Jim Geraghty

March 13, 2012 8:10 A.M.

In today’s CBS News poll:

Compared to four years ago, is your family’s financial situation better today, worse today, or about the same?

The survey finds 20 percent say better today, 37 percent say worse today, and 43 percent say “about the same.”

The Daily Caller:

Reid: Poll finding 80 percent of Americans not better off ‘so meaningless’ [VIDEO]


Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, called a new CBS News and New York Times survey finding that 80 percent of Americans are not better off financially than they were four years ago “so meaningless.” Reid said he does not “believe in” the poll’s results.

The Daily Caller asked Reid for his assessment of the poll’s findings. (RELATED: More on Harry Reid)

“I’m not much of a pollster guy. As everyone knows, there isn’t a poll in America that had me having any chance of being re-elected, but I got re-elected,” he told TheDC.

“I think this poll is so meaningless. It is trying to give the American people an idea of what 300 million people feel by testing several hundred people. I think the poll is flawed in so many different ways including a way that questions were asked. I don’t believe in polls generally and specifically not in this one.”

The poll, conducted among 1009 adults nationwide between March 7-11 via telephone, found that “just 20 percent of Americans feel their family’s financial situation is better today than it was four years ago” while “another 37 percent say it is worse and 43 percent say it is about the same.”

According to the survey, President Obama’s approval rating has hit a new low of 41 percent.