Bush approval drops, Democrats' goals backed: poll - Yahoo! News

Bush approval drops, Democrats' goals backed: poll - Yahoo! News: "Sat Nov 11, 9:58 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just days after Democrats took over Congress, Americans embraced their top goals and
President George W. Bush's job approval rating slid to 31 percent, according to a Newsweek poll issued on Saturday.
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Huge majorities of those polled said they approved of the legislative priorities cited by Democratic leaders after their party seized control of the Senate and the House of Representatives from Republicans, the magazine said.
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The strongest support, 92 percent, was for lowering drug prices for retirees on Medicare by allowing the government to negotiate directly with drug companies. Some three-quarters of respondents said it should be a top priority, according to Newsweek.

Americans also supported raising the federal minimum wage (89 percent), investigating government contracts in Iraq (89 percent) and cutting the interest rate of federal student loans (88 percent).

Bush's 31-percent job approval rating, down from 35 percent a week earlier, was a new low in Newsweek's polling. Some 63 percent disapproved of the Republican president's job performance, and a full two-thirds agreed that 'he won't be able to get much done' in the last two years of his term.

The drop in Bush's approval rating came after Wednesday's resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who had been a lightning rod for criticism of the administration's handling of the war in Iraq."