By Nathaniel "Beltway" Steele
Sixty-nine percent of Americans say they are not satisfied with how the economy is working, according to a new CBS News poll — a striking figure as the country enters the sixth month of the war with Iran.
CBS's reporting ties the sour mood in part to persistent pain at the pump, though the poll's full questionnaire and methodology were not detailed in the available summary. Correspondent Aaron Navarro reported on the findings, noting the war's duration as a backdrop to the numbers, but the poll itself does not establish a direct causal link between the conflict and the price Americans are paying at gas stations — that connection is CBS's framing, not a stated finding of the survey.
What the poll does capture is a broad, bipartisan-feeling discontent that has outlasted several rounds of diplomatic deadlines, including the U.S.-Iran ceasefire set to expire Monday. Economic dissatisfaction of this scale — nearly seven in ten respondents — is the kind of number that tends to shape midterm-year politics, though CBS's report did not include any polling on how respondents assign blame or what they want done about it.
The American Times has requested the full poll toplines and methodology from CBS News and will update this report if the underlying data changes the picture presented here.
Read the footnotes. The story's always in the footnotes.
— Compiled from reporting by CBS News.
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