The Mercury News

Three-quarters in U.S. say they lack influence in DC

- By Laurie Kellman and Emily Swanson

WASHINGTON >> Linda Bell, a beekeeper and farmer who makes about $11,000 a year, feels Washington power brokers have no intention of making health care affordable.

“They don’t care about people like me,” says the Bosque County, Texas, resident.

Three-quarters of Americans agree that people like themselves have too little influence in Washington, rare unanimity across political, economic, racial and geographic­al lines and including both those who approve and disapprove of President Donald Trump, according to a new poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Majorities also don’t have a great deal of confidence in most of the nation’s institutio­ns. That’s especially true of Congress, which takes the biggest hit, and the presidency.

Even at a time of deepening economic and political divisions, the poll finds widespread agreement that small businesses, poor Americans and workers have too little power in Washington, while lobbyists, big business and rich people have too much.

The results are notable because Trump won his presidency with a populist call-to-arms to make “forgotten Americans” his priority and to restore jobs to people still struggling amid the economy’s recovery. Republican­s who control Congress echoed Trump’s vow to overhaul President Barack Obama’s national health care law and cut people’s taxes as part of a drive to restore the American middle class. Those efforts have wobbled, however, amid Trump’s efforts to crack down on Muslim immigratio­n, his feud-filled Twitter feed, investigat­ions into allegation­s of collusion between Russia and Trump’s campaign and Congress’ inability so far to come up with a replacemen­t for “Obamacare.”

“He said he was going to restore the middle class, and I thought he would pick really good people who would do that. But the people he picked seem to be not in touch with the middle class,” said Hobart, Indiana, resident James Pavelka, 60, a health and safety instructor who said he voted for Trump. He was referring to Trump’s Cabinet, thought to be the wealthiest in modern times. “During the campaign, he said, ‘I’m for the little guy.’ People were angry and he fed on that and he knew how to do that.”

It’s not just Trump who makes people feel like they lack power.

Only 6 percent of Americans have a great deal of confidence in Congress, with wide agreement across party lines.

Fourteen percent of people said they have a great deal of confidence in the executive branch, which includes the president and all of the Cabinet agencies, and 24 percent say the same of the Supreme Court.

Most Americans feel solid about the armed forces, with about 56 percent saying they have a great deal of confidence in the people running the military.

About 3 in 10 Americans say they have a great deal of confidence in the FBI, and a third says the same of the scientific community. Both are trusted more by Democrats than Republican­s.

Beyond government, only about 11 percent of Americans say they have a lot of confidence in the news media, the target of angry tweets by Trump.

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