Gallup polls Americans on minimum wage, Obamacare, and immigration reform
Jasmine Rivera (right) is the lead organizer at Juntos, an organization that fights for Latino immigrants in the Philadelphia area. (Kimberly Paynter/WHYY)
NewsWorks Tonight host Dave Heller sits down for his weekly conversation with Gallup’s Frank Newport to talk about trends in American opinion.
Based on the latest November update measuring people’s views of the most important problem facing the nation, the GOP candidates in this week’s debate hit on quite a few of the key issues, including government and the economy.
Right off the bat in the debate, Donald Trump and Ben Carson came out against an increase in the minimum wage. The public now — and at all times in the past when Gallup has asked the question — favors an increase in the minimum wage.
One of the big issues in the debate Wednesday night was immigration, with Jeb Bush and John Kasich coming down in favor of comprehensive immigration reform, while Trump and Ted Cruz argued against this plan as “amnesty.” However, Americans actually favor comprehensive immigration reform.
Both Carly Fiorina and Trump called for repealing Obamacare in the debate. New data show that less than half of Americans approve of Obamacare at this point, as has generally been the case for the last several years, but other polling shows that less than half favor repealing it when they are presented with other options.
Although three GOP candidates are current members of the Senate, the debate participants were not hesitant to criticize the U.S. government. Americans’ approval of Congress is now within 2 points of its all-time low.
Click the audio player to listen to the interview.
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