Washington: Nearly 80 per cent of Americans say they cannot trust Washington and they have little faith that the massive federal bureaucracy can solve the nation's ills, according to a survey from the Pew Research Centre.
The poll released on Sunday illustrates the ominous situation facing President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party as they struggle to maintain their comfortable congressional majorities in this autumn's elections.
Midterm prospects are typically tough for the party in power. Add a toxic environment like this and lots of incumbent Democrats could be out of work.
The survey found that just 22 per cent of those questioned say they can trust Washington almost always or most of the time and just 19 per cent say they are basically content with it. Nearly half say the government negatively effects their daily lives.
"The government's been lying to people for years. Politicians make promises to get elected, and when they get elected, they don't follow through," said Cindy Wanto, 57, a registered Democrat from Pennsylvania.
Red tape
"There's too much government in my business. It was a problem before Obama, but he's certainly not helping fix it."
Majorities in the survey call Washington too big and too powerful, and say it's interfering too much in state and local matters.
The public is split over whether the government should be responsible for dealing with critical problems or scaled back to reduce its power, presumably in favour of personal responsibility.
About half say they want a smaller government with fewer services, compared with roughly 40 per cent who want a bigger government providing more.