President Obama’s approval ratings are the highest they’ve been in three years, giving a boost to the commander in chief as he prepares to face off with congressional Republicans over sequestration cuts.
A Bloomberg National poll released Wednesday found that 55 percent of Americans approve of Obama’s performance,the best he’s done on the poll since September 2009. To give Obama even more of a boost, 49 percent of respondents say his proposals to increase government spending will do more to create jobs than GOP plans to cut spending and taxes.
The looming showdown over how to handle sequestration cuts is set to come to a head soon. In March, close to $85 billion in cuts are set to go into effect. Many within his party have called on Obama to take a harder stance than in past negotiations with Republicans.
Obama’s approval ratings would seem to give him at least a small edge with the public. Since winning re-election handily in November, those approval ratings have trended steadily upward. His approval reached 60 percent in a Washington Post/ABC News poll conducted last month, and a CBS poll from December put Obama at his highest point since the killing of Osama bin Laden in 2011.
Obama’s stock appears to be going up among voters just as the GOP’s is sinking. Just 35 percent of respondents said they view the GOP favorably, the lowest marks in the poll’s three years and a six point drop over the last six months.
The HuffPost Pollster ‘s chart, which aggregates data from all polls, puts President Obama’s approval rating at 52.7 percent.