Thread: Viewers strongly approve of Trump's speech to Congress

Viewers strongly approve of Trump's speech to Congress

CBS News March 1, 2017, 7:00 AM

By Anthony Salvanto, Sarah Dutton, Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus and Kabir Khanna

Viewers nationwide strongly approved of President Trump’s speech Tuesday night, with many Democrats joining Republicans in calling it “presidential” and positive in tone. Republicans and Independents found it “unifying,” though Democrats were slower to come around on that measure.

The President gained support for his policy plans among viewers: Interviewed before and after the address, they came away from it more positive on his ideas for the economy, immigration, terrorism, crime and Obamacare.

As is often the case in addresses to Congress, those who watched were more likely to be from the president’s party – in this case, Republicans. And they described a president they felt was keeping campaign promises and offering an “inspiring” message.

While half of Democrats found the speech “divisive,” about one-third of them also said Mr. Trump was “specific” and “knowledgeable”; neither label drew a majority, but nonetheless sizeable numbers compared to the more negative reactions Democrats have had to other aspects of his presidency.

And viewers of all stripes described the speech as at least somewhat positive in tone.

Overall, most watchers approved of the speech. Republicans did tune in to watch it in much greater numbers than Democrats (as a president’s party typically does) which bolstered those approval numbers. Forty percent of Democrats at least somewhat approved; 18 percent strongly approved.

The president moved opinion among viewers on his plans for a number of policy issues, comparing their views before and after the speech. The percent favoring his plans for fighting terrorism, addressing crime, improving the economy, handling illegal immigration, and dealing with Obamacare all jumped.

Republicans and Democrats did see the president’s description of the country quite differently. Most Republicans think Mr. Trump’s depiction of the state of America is accurate, while six in 10 Democrats think the President’s description is worse than the country really is.

There is agreement across party lines that Mr. Trump is trying to do what he said he’d do during the campaign.

Reacting to the president’s description of the economy as he took office, Republicans and independents think he did inherit a bad economy, while three in four Democrats think the president took over an economy that was already improving.

Majorities overall were positive toward his plans for the military, trade, foreign policy, the budget deficit, and taxes. The president won favor from viewers for his plans to build roads and bridges -- the one issue on which his approach appealed to most Democrats as well as nearly all Republicans.

For Republicans and independents, the speech boosted optimism about what the administration will do moving forward. Just a quarter of Democrats felt more optimistic.

As is typical for a presidential speech, viewers tended to come more from the president’s own party; in this case more Republicans tuned in. Historically, a president’s partisans are much more likely than others to watch an address to Congress or State of the Union.

The poll was conducted immediately after the conclusion of the president’s address to Congress by re-contacting a scientifically sampled panel of Americans who had first been interviewed in the days leading up to the speech and had stated that they planned to watch. A total of 857 speech watchers were interviewed. The margin of error for the total sample is 4.2 points.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/cbs-news...-presidential/

Strange they didn't put the poll results in the text. To see them you have to click on the link to see the graphs. But here are the two main ones:

Of Those Who Watched the Speech: 76% approved, 24% disapproved

How Did Speech Make You Feel:

More Optimistic - Republicans 83%, Democrats 24%.

I really liked his speech and the tone of it, but I am worried about how we will pay for everything he wants to do. We can't do everything.

imblest, good point. This is how I see it.

Last fall, Ryan pushed through a $1 trillion omnibus bill and it passed. For what? We have no idea. It wasn't for cabinet level white house operations. It wasn't for health care or SS or Medicare/Medicaid. It was .... other stuff.

So, lets break down what Trump is actually asking for.

1. $1 trillion over 10 years in infrastructure. That's $100 billion a year.
2. $54 billion increase in defense spending for this year.
3. $20 billion one time cost for border wall, paid out over 2 maybe 3 years.
4. $3 billion for increase in Border Patrol, ICE Agents and Immigration Judges

That's a total of $100 billion for infrastructure + $54 billion for defense + $20 billion for border wall + $3 billion for immigration enforcement = $177 billion.

That's less than one-fifth of last year's Omnibus Bill. The wall is a one time charge. The defense is to upgrade quickly and probably won't be a repeat every year so maybe 2 or 3 years, then falls off.

The money spent on immigration enforcement and the wall will pay for itself many times over.

The defense spending is just necessary and Trump is going to work really hard to slim down the prices we pay for products and services by negotiating these contracts so we receive more for less.

The infrastructure improvements are one time costs for projects that will benefit our people, businesses and country for many many decades, so they are in reality capital investments in America and again will pay for themselves many times over. They will also invigorate business by providing the good infrastructure support manufacturers and suppliers need to be capable and efficient to grow manufacturing operations and good jobs that have great wages and benefits.

Trump is also dedicated to involving private businesses who benefit from the infrastructure spending to participate as well as would states and communities ho benefit from the improvements.

Trump is also going to make government more efficient and less costly, doing more with less. He actually knows how to do this, so for him, this is fun, where other politicians would talk about it but didn't have a clue how to do it. He's going to cut superfluous regulatory agencies, foreign aid that generates no return, not filling vacant positions that are determined unnecessary and there are a lot of those.

Trump's got this. The numbers are staggering to him because of their size, he said this the other day, calculators can't even do the math, reports are in millions and billions and trillions so you have to add zeroes to even understand the exact amounts involved and the agencies all use different scales. But the formula and what needs to be done is the same. It's management by objectives, funding by need not history, it's how most state governments function, just on a larger scale.

So to all worried about the important issue you raise, imblest, Congress has approved over $10 trillion of new debt in the past 8 years with nary a whimper and we have absolutely nothing to show for it. All up in smoke or down the toilet. With Trump's expenditures, we'll have something, we can touch it, see it, watch it, it will be ours for a very very long time and if we maintain and take good care of these improvements, we could have them forever.

And, if they use this opportunity to pass the FairTax with Trump increasing the GDP, it will all be paid for lock, stock and barrel in just a few years, possibly within the expenditure year itself so he can balance the budget. When Americans all get back to work, taxpayers not only save billions in welfare expense every year, taxpayers see an increase in tax revenue from the new consumption spent from the new disposable income made available from new and larger incomes, wages and earnings.

Just my thoughts. Today on CNN, there was actually a conversation about the FairTax, so it must be rumbling around. I sure hope so! If our country passes the FairTax, there is no stopping US, because it changes everything for the better. We'll be top of the pack in areas that we've sunk way below the top, and this will happen fast.

FairTax Act of 2017: HR 25 in US House of Representatives and S 18 in the US Senate. Just do it. You'll love it.

Judy, he was talking about getting everyone covered as far as healthcare is concerned in addition to the things you listed. So that is more money. There are folks like me who can't afford obamacare and don't qualify for Medicaid. It sounds like Trump is planning for everyone to have coverage. That will cost even more than obamacare already does! He needs to be talking about how he will pay for all of this, or at least, what he will cut. I would love to see foreign aid cut.

We could start with cutting all foreign aid.

If people need our aid, we could make sure it goes directly to the people, not into the accounts of their leaders.

These funds should not be administered through the charities and ngo's. They often, if not always, do more harm than good. All the while, making some people very wealthy.

If the money went directly to the people of the country needing it, cut out all the corruption, it would be a small percentage of what we spend now.

We need to stop giving monies to every charity and organization that supposedly operates for the 'good' of our people. These parasites are operating for the 'good' of the people running them and many times for the detriment of this country.

I don't think our framers intended that we should keep these kinds of organizations afloat.

The government needs to cut out a lot of the bureaucracy in Washington and at the same time, take back the operations that should be part of the government - like prisons and the military.

Originally Posted by imblest

Judy, he was talking about getting everyone covered as far as healthcare is concerned in addition to the things you listed. So that is more money. There are folks like me who can't afford obamacare and don't qualify for Medicaid. It sounds like Trump is planning for everyone to have coverage. That will cost even more than obamacare already does! He needs to be talking about how he will pay for all of this, or at least, what he will cut. I would love to see foreign aid cut.

I think what he actually said was everyone to have access to coverage that will be more affordable than Obamacare, and no one is forced to buy it or sign up. I'm like you imblest. I don't have health insurance now, it's no longer affordable. Obamacare without a subsidy is too expensive. It's crazy what's going on.

I'm hoping Trump's new plan to erase the lines, go back to a free market system will bring the rates back down where they were, then I can afford a policy again, probably with a pretty big deductible, but that's okay for me.

The real problem is an economic one. 94 million working age people out of the work force, it's crazy, madness. I've never heard of such a thing in my life! One of the networks had a Democrat on that took issue with Trump using this number to show the real condition of our economy and they said yeah but 44 million are retirees, 15 million are students and stay at home "caretakers". Well, at least half of those who are retired need extra income, part-time jobs but can't find them. Most students need part-time or full-time jobs, every college kid I know today needs at least a part-time job, and most "caretakers" aren't home by choice, they're home because they can't find a job that pays enough to make it worthwhile to pay for day care.

It's all about the jobs and too many illegal aliens and immigrants. Bring the good jobs back home, send the illegal aliens back to their homes in their real countries, reduce immigration substantially, and all this craziness will self-correct. Retirees will have supplemental income. Students will have good part-time work options, and many of those "caretakers" who need a job can find one that pays enough to warrant daycare expenses. Even a lot of people on disability will get off of disability and go back to work. People on Medicaid will have new and better jobs so they go off Medicaid. Everything will self-correct.