1 Year Later: Obama’s Approval Rating Plummeting

On January 20, 2009, President Obama spoke of hope and change as he was sworn into office with a 64% approval rating.  Today, exactly one year later, Obama’s approval rate continues to nose-dive as more Americans lose hope in his big-spending agendas.

Reports claim that Obama’s approval rating has hit an all-time low at 50%-45%. 

A year ago during his inauguration speech, Obama stated:

On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises.

Despite his promises, the American people have seen taxes, federal spending and the national debt significantly increase. In the last year, bills have been passed with gigantic earmarks. The promise of government transparency has been broken as closed-door health care negotiations continue to occur. He even pledged that all legislation would be placed online for five days before signing to allow for public commenting- no such thing has happened. He stated that he would work together with Republicans to:

end the petty partisanship that has consumed Washington for so long.

However, as Politifact reports, Obama initiated legislation has been overwhelmingly partisan:  

On the economic stimulus bill that passed in February 2009, only three Republicans in the Senate supported the measure, and in the House, no Republicans supported it. On the initial votes for a health care overhaul, he got one Republican in the House but no Republicans in the Senate.

It is no wonder that Obama’s approval rating has notably dropped within the past year. Reckless spending, big-government takeovers and secrecy are the opposite of what we were promised.  We were instead promised a transparent and fiscally responsible government–which is where the center of American politics is, where the Tea Party movement is, and is what Massachusetts newly elected Senator Scott Brown ran on–and why he was elected.