Report Summary
More Americans are paying attention to Bosnia these days than at anytime since the bloody war in former Yugoslavia broke out. But Bosnia, Bob Dole’s attack on Hollywood, and even O.J. Simpson take a back seat to public attentiveness to news about proposals to scale back spending on Medicare. And the attention to this debate isn’t doing the Republican party much good. For the first time since last fall’s election, the percentage of Americans saying they are happy that the GOP controls Congress has fallen below 50%, and public disapproval of GOP policies (45%) is now significantly greater than approval (41%). Ironically, this occurs at a time when President Clinton has joined the Republicans in calling for substantial reductions in the cost of Medicare and other social programs.
