Poll: Federal government losing favor

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WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- Americans' opinion of the federal government has gone from favorable to unfavorable in the last 10 years, a poll indicates.

While roughly two-thirds of Americans offered favorable opinions 10 years ago, a poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press conducted this month found the favorable rating for the federal government has fallen to just 33 percent -- the lowest positive response in 15 years. The poll found 62 percent had an unfavorable opinion.

Fifty-two percent of respondents gave favorable ratings to their state governments and local governments fared even better at 61 percent, the poll found.

State government favorability numbers slumped from 2008-2009 due to the financial crisis but they have steadied over the past four years, causing the gap between the state and federal governments to widen, the poll indicated.

The study was conducted April 4-15 at Princeton Data Source among 1,514 English and Spanish-speaking adults with a sampling error of approximately 3.6 percentage points.