Americans hate the U.S. government more than ever, according to a new report. Americans' satisfaction level in dealing with federal agencies -- everything from Treasury to Homeland Security -- has fallen for a third consecutive year, reaching an eight-year low.
CBS News reports:
A handful of industries are those "love to hate" types of businesses, such as cable-television companies and Internet service providers.
The federal government has joined the ranks of the bottom-of-the-barrel industries, according to a new survey from the American Customer Satisfaction Index.
"Satisfaction is linked to broader goals in the political system that it wants to maximize, like confidence and trust," said Forrest Morgeson, director of research at the ACSI. "It's much more difficult to govern if the entire population dislikes you."
Although satisfaction is down for the federal government as a whole, the research found that consumers have vastly different views of specific agencies. The department that received the highest score was the Department of the Interior, which received a ranking of 75 points. That could reflect Americans' positive feelings toward national parks, which many visit while on vacation, Morgeson noted.
The lowest-ranked department may not be much of a surprise to taxpayers: Treasury, which received a score of just 55 points, or 20 points below the Department of the Interior. Treasury, as a reminder, oversees the IRS.
"If you think about the most contacted government agency, it'll be the IRS," Morgeson said. "If you think about what the IRS does, which is take money from citizens, you'll have low satisfaction."
Is it any wonder Americans feel this way? The IRS targets conservative political non-profits and gets away with it. The VA ignores our injured veterans, and the EPA threatens to put thousands of Americans out of work.
Our federal government was never supposed to function as it does today--thousands of unelected bureaucrats pull the strings of our daily lives while our elected members of Congress pursue reelection and personal gain.
What’s the solution? It’s found in the Constitution itself, and more Americans are joining the movement every day. It’s called an Article V Convention of States. A Convention of States can propose constitutional amendments that not only curb the abuses of our federal agencies, but also impose term limits and fiscal restraints on members of Congress. Just those two changes would go a long way towards getting our country back on track, and, hopefully, restore Americans’ confidence in its national government.
