Why do Americans seem so down about the economy, when many economic indicators are positive? Gallup points to the answer, in a poll that asked Americans how things have changed for them over the past year.

Resident Fellow Karlyn Bowman

The May poll found that 99 percent of respondents said that the price they paid for a gallon of gas has gone up. (Who are the 1 percent?) In addition, 82 percent said the amount they pay for utilities has gone up, 73 percent said the price they pay for food has risen, 70 percent said their local property taxes have climbed, and 64 percent said the amount they pay for health insurance and the amount they pay out-of-pocket for health care or prescription drugs has gone up.

At the same time, only 38 percent report that their take-home pay after deductions has increased. That, and the pall the Iraq war is casting over things, goes a long way to explaining Americans’ pessimism.

Are You Better Off ... ? In a June 24-27 Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, 21 percent said their own family’s economic situation is better because of President Bush’s economic policies over the past five years, while 27 percent said it was worse off, and 48 percent said it was about the same.

Federal and Local Property Taxes. Also in the Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, 34 percent of respondents said they had benefited personally from the tax cuts of the past few years, including 18 percent of Democrats, 32 percent of independents and 60 percent of Republicans.

The Gallup poll cited earlier found that 42 percent said their federal income taxes had gone up over the past year, while 49 percent said they had remained the same.

The local property tax bite was more severe. Seventy percent reported it had gone up, with 28 percent saying it had remained the same.

Romney’s Religion. The last time Gallup asked Americans whether they would vote for a “qualified” Mormon for president was 1999, when 79 percent of respondents said they would do so and 17 percent said they would not. Those responses weren’t significantly different from the asking of the question in 1967, when then-Michigan Gov. George Romney (R), the father of possible presidential candidate and current Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), was running for president.

Apparently, things have changed. In the June Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, 51 percent nationally said they could vote for a Mormon for president, but 37 percent said they could not. Regular church attendees were more resistant.

Bush and Congressional Democrats on Iraq. In a June 22-25 ABC News/Washington Post poll, 64 percent of respondents said the president did not have a clear plan on Iraq. Seventy-one percent said Democrats in Congress did not.

No Good News for Congress. In a June Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll, 34 percent of respondents said they had a favorable impression of Democrats in Congress. Even within their party, the margins on that question were slim. A narrow majority of Democrats (53 percent) said their view of Congressional Democrats was favorable.

Nationally, 31 percent of respondents had a favorable impression of Republicans in Congress, with 67 percent of Republicans favorable.

When Pew asked about Democratic leaders in Congress, 32 percent approved. For Republican leaders in Congress, 30 percent approved.

Meanwhile, in a June 23-25 Gallup/USA Today poll, 38 percent approved of the job Democrats in Congress were doing, and 33 percent approved of the job Republicans in Congress were doing.

Thirty-one percent had a favorable opinion of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), while 29 percent were unfavorable. For Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) , those responses were 26 percent and 29 percent. Unfavorable ratings for both have jumped about 10 points since Gallup last asked about them (a year ago for Hastert, and 2003 for Pelosi).

In its poll, Pew reported that “the level of explicit anti-incumbent sentiment--against both individual members and Congress as a whole--is substantially higher than in most previous midterms.”

In the poll, 32 percent of respondents said they would not like to see their Member re-elected. In October 1994, that number was 29 percent.

Guantanamo and Terrorist Suspects. In a June 27-28 poll, a plurality of Democrats (47 percent) and a majority of Republicans (65 percent) told Fox News/Opinion Dynamics interviewers that they did not think the United States should honor its international treaty commitments if that meant releasing dangerous enemy fighters from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay. Thirty-six percent of Democrats and 20 percent of Republicans said we should honor the commitments.

In the meantime, the June ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 57 percent of respondents--down from 65 percent in 2003--supported the federal government holding suspected terrorists without trial at Guantanamo. Two-thirds were confident that the rights of prisoners were being adequately protected there.

Nationally, 71 percent (and 75 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of Republicans) felt that such prisoners should be given POW status and charged with a crime. Twenty-five percent said they should be held without charges indefinitely.

Karlyn H. Bowman is a resident fellow at AEI.