This number is almost the same as the results in 1994 when the GOP came to power. Also included in the poll is a fair amount of pessimism with the American public about the American dream. When you hand out so much on a silver platter to your friends who already have silver platters, tables, houses and private jets, surprisingly the public finds it hard to see any opportunity to rise and live the American dream.
Seventy-nine percent of those surveyed in the new Opinion Research poll said they feel big business does have too much influence over the administration's decisions. The poll comes after a congressional lobbying scandal and questions about White House ties to the Halliburton Co., a key U.S. contractor in the Iraq war.
The percentage of people who feel the administration is overly influenced by corporations is up 10 percentage points from a poll conducted in April 2001, a few months after Bush became president.
