Americans Worry Less About Government Regulation.

Byline: Jim Norman

Synopsis: The percentage of Americans who think there is too much government regulation has dropped to 39%, the lowest in a decade.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Thirty-nine percent of Americans believe there is too much government regulation of business and industry, the lowest level in a decade. A third (33%) say there is the right amount of regulation, the highest percentage in 11 years, and a quarter (25%) say there is too little.

The drop in the number who think there is too much regulation is occurring as President Donald Trump continues his drive to roll back federal regulations -- a key promise of his 2016 campaign. Trump has boasted of the success of his efforts, including his disputed claim earlier this year that "No president has ever cut so many regulations in their entire term a[bar] as we have cut in less than a year."

A major target of the cuts has been regulations put into place by Trump's predecessor, Barack Obama, including key changes on environmental, financial and civil rights issues. The percentage of Americans saying there is "too much regulation" rose from an average 37% over the eight years of George W. Bush's presidency (2001-2008) to an average 48% for Obama's eight years in office (2009-2016). The transition to Trump did not change attitudes much in his first year as president -- from 47% saying "too much regulation" in 2016 to 45% in 2017. This year, the change was more pronounced -- a six-percentage-point drop to 39%.

The pattern has been somewhat different for those who hold the opposite opinion -- that there is too little regulation. The 25% who now say there is too little is only one point above the average of 24% for the Obama presidency. Most of the change since Obama left office has occurred in the percentage saying there is the right amount of regulation, now at 33% -- up from an average 25% under Obama.

The question is included in Gallup's Governance poll, which since 2001 has annually measured the public's views on the role of government and how well federal, state and local governments are performing. This year it was conducted Sept. 4-12.

Republicans and independents who lean toward the Republican Party are driving the decline in the number of Americans thinking the government regulates business and industry too much. While the percentage of Democrats and Democratic leaners saying there is too much regulation has hardly changed since Trump took office in January 2017, the percentage of...

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