The Republicans' public relations woes rage on.
A new Pew Research/USA Today poll shows nearly half of Americans will blame the GOP if the sequester budget ax falls on March 1 without a deal to delay them, while only 31 percent would blame the president.
As far as the cuts themselves, a clear lack of urgency lingers, and the public remains relatively spilt, with 40 percent saying it's better to let them just happen while 49 percent urge delaying them again, according to the survey.
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But those numbers should be taken with a grain of salt since public awareness of the sequester cuts lags behind the widespread concern over the so-called fiscal cliff that made headlines back at the beginning of the year. Pew researchers found that roughly a quarter of those polled have heard nothing at all about the looming budget cuts.
And the public overwhelmingly supports President Obama's approach to deficit reduction—a combination of cuts and revenue increases—while only 19 percent support the Republican Party's cuts-only approach.
And as far as the big picture is concerned, the American people remain on the president's side, at least compared to Congress. According to Pew, "Obama's 51 percent job approval rating is down slightly from a post-election high of 55 percent, it remains well above the 25 percent approval rating for GOP congressional leaders."
Finally, the president's push for a big bump in the minimum wage enjoys far more support than any of his other State of the Union initiatives, with a 71 percent to 26 percent advantage in the poll.
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