Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
Americans Say Government is Our Greatest Problem
Americans Say Government is Our Greatest Problem
Dec 30, 2025 5:09 AM

What is the worst problem facing America? According to a recent Gallup poll, most Americans agree with former President Reagan, who said government is not a the solution, government is the problem.

An average of 16 percent of Americans in 2015 mentioned some aspect of government—including President Obama, Congress, or political conflict—as the country’s chief problem. The economy came in second with 13 percent mentioning it, while unemployment and immigration tied for third at 8 percent.

While government takes the top slot, that’s still an answer given by fewer than one in five citizens. We can’t even seem e to a consensus about our biggest problems. Indeed, 2015 is only the second time since 2001 (2014 was the other year) that no single issue averaged 20 percent or more for the year. Rather than being focused on a single issue, there is a broad range of concerns troubling us; more than a dozen issuesreceived2-6 percent of the vote for worst problem.

Perhaps not surprising since this is an election year, thiswas the first year since 2007 in which immigration was one of the top four most frequently cited problems. Gallup notes that this is likely because mentions of healthcare dropped from 10 percent in 2014 (when Obamacare was frequently in the news) to 6 percent in 2015.

Rounding out the top 10 were five problems, each averaging 5 percent: ethical/moral decline, race relations/racism, terrorism, the federal budget deficit or debt, and education.

Six other issues received 3 percent each: poverty/hunger/homelessness, national security, gap between rich and poor, crime/violence, foreign aid, and ISIS/situation in Iraq.

What would make the top three issue in you list of America’s greatest problems.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
5 Facts about federal regulations
Vice President Pence will be giving a speech today emphasizing the importance the Trump administration places on reviewing regulatory policy. Today’s date of October 2 was selected to mark the start of the next fiscal year, when federal agencies will be expected to generate below zero dollars in net new regulatory costs. Here are five facts you should know about federal regulations: 1.Regulations are rules that have the force of law and that are issued by various federal government departments...
No, it’s not absurd for conservatives to worry about socialism
The Library of Law and Liberty has published a pilation of essays that address the recent claims made by First Things editor, Rusty Reno, about Michael Novak and his understanding of capitalism. In pilation, Michael Matheson Miller, research fellow at the Acton Institute, writes that Reno’s view of Novak is an inaccurate “caricature” and “misses the point.” Reno was incorrect on several points he made about Novak and the present state of the economy, including his characterizing Novak as a...
What is ‘economic man’?
“Intellectuals are often vocal critics of capitalism. Most of them lean left politically, so it is easy to identify anti-capitalism with progressivism,” says Kishore Jayabalan in this week’s Acton Commentary. “It is therefore no coincidence that the modern welfare state has been administered by elites eager to correct supposed market failures on the way to a more egalitarian society. Leftist elites tend to be university professors rather than captains of industry, but elites they remain.” How, then, are we to...
How Christians can bridge the gap between work and wage
As Target races against Walmart to voluntarily raise its minimum wage to $15 per hour, we’re reminded that upward fluctuations in the price of low-skilled labor are more than possible without the blunt interference of government control (and its deleterious side effects). Even still, critics will predictably proclaim that such changes are far too little, too late, arguing that the government plays a valuable role in accelerating these developments when employers fall short. Or, as one of economist Don Boudreaux’s...
Audio: Rev. Sirico on the air
Acton President Rev. Robert A. Sirico has been busy on the airwaves of late; here’s a roundup of his latest radio interviews: On September 19th, Rev. Sirico joined hostThaddeus Romansky on RED-C Catholic Radio in Waco and College Station, Texas to discuss patibility of social solidarity and free markets, and the interface of religion and economics more generally. On September 22nd, Rev. Sirico joinedhost Justin Barclay and Samaritas CEO Sam Beals on WOOD Radio’s West Michigan Liveto talk about the...
The social welfare of price discrimination
Note: This is post #51 in a weekly video series on basic microeconomics. Is price discrimination bad for society? How does it affect output, and what is its effect on social welfare? If price discrimination increases output, it is likely beneficial for society. If output isn’t increased, social welfare is reduced. In this video by Marginal Revolution University, economist Tyler Cowen consider the effect of price discrimination. (If you find the pace of the videos too slow, I’d mend watching...
Sec. DeVos defends school choice in speech at Harvard
In a speech last Thursday at the Harvard Kennedy School, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos made a powerful defense of school choice: One of the many pernicious effects of the growth of government is that its people worry less and less about each other, thinking their worries are now in the hands of so-called “experts” in Washington. There is perhaps no better example than our current education system. Many inside — and outside — government insist a government system...
Radio Free Acton: Tom Lindsay on the future of higher education in America; Upstream on The Devil and Father Amorth
On this week’s episode of Radio Free Acton, Paul Bonicelli, director of programs and education at the Acton Institute talks about Acton’s ing Education & Freedom conference and the future of education in America with Tom Lindsay, director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Higher Education. Then, on the Upstream segment, Bruce Edward Walker talks with Sam Buntz, writer at The Federalist, about “The Devil and Father Amorth,” a new documentary by William Friedkin, director of the classic...
Explainer: What you need to know about Catalonia’s independence 1-0 referendum
Voters who took part in yesterday’s national 1-0 referendum overwhelmingly supported Catalonia’s independence from Spain, and images of the Spanish National Police brutally suppressing the election have flooded the international media. But any honest accounting of the 1-0 referendum requires a deeper nuance that leaves no party looking heroic. The 1-0 referendum On October 1, Catalonia held an election asking voters,“Do youwantCatalonia to e an independent state in theform of a republic?” Catalonia, which has seen its autonomy wax and...
6 ways economic freedom benefits the global poor
Even most critics admit the free market is the greatest wealth-generating system in history, but they say the poor benefit more from interventionist economic systems. In fact, economic liberty elevates the least well-off in more laissez-faire nations to a better position than those living in unfree economies based on such factors as average e, life expectancy, literacy, and other forms of personal liberty. The data bearing out each point are contained in theFraser Institute’s most recent“Economic Freedom of the World”...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved