By comparison, the president's approval rating was about forty-five percent after the congressional elections in November.
Those elections gave Republicans control of the House of Representatives for the first time in four years. Republicans also made gains in the Senate. President Obama took responsibility for the results.
BARACK OBAMA: "After what I’m sure was a long night for a lot of you -- and needless to say it was for me -- I can tell you that some election nights are more fun than others. Some are exhilarating; some are humbling."
FAITH LAPIDUS: Many of the new Republican members of the House are young Tea Party activists. They support tax and spending cuts and limited government.
Norman Ornstein is a political scientist at the American Enterprise Institute. He says voters punished Democrats because unemployment remains high. He says the political climate may be even more divided now, since many moderate Democrats and Republicans have been replaced.
NORMAN ORNSTEIN: "We’ve had plenty of times when we have had enormous tension, with the impeachment of President Nixon. We had the impeachment of President Clinton, we had the Vietnam War, we had the Iran-Contra investigation, periods when the two parties had an enormously high level of tension. But this is simply worse."
(MUSIC)
STEVE EMBER: Third-term Representative Michele Bachmann is a Republican from Minnesota and a favorite of the Tea Party movement. She talked about the trillion-dollar federal deficit on the CBS program "Face the Nation." She said Republicans have a simple message for the new Congress.
Rep. Michele Bachmann
MICHELE BACHMANN: “Stop spending money that you do not have.”
STEVE EMBER: One of the first budget battles of two thousand eleven will center on whether to raise the debt limit in order to borrow more money.
Mike Kelly is a newly elected Republican representative from Pennsylvania.
MIKE KELLY: “Raising the debt ceiling, to me, is absolutely irresponsible. We have been spending money for so long that we do not have, and keep saying this is OK, that we will raise taxes and find it somewhere.”
FAITH LAPIDUS: The Obama administration says not raising the debt limit could leave the United States without enough money to pay its bondholders around the world.
Economic adviser Austan Goolsbee says federal budget deficits must be cut. But he said on ABC’s "This Week" program that they must not be cut in a way that damages economic recovery.
AUSTAN GOOLSBEE: “If you are going to skimp on important investments that we need to grow, you are making a mistake. The longer-run fiscal challenge facing the country is important. But that is totally different than saying we should tighten the belt in the midst of coming out of the worst recession since nineteen twenty-nine.”
STEVE EMBER: Republicans are promising to move quickly to cut tens of billions of dollars in government spending. In nineteen ninety-five, Democrat Bill Clinton faced a budget battle with a Republican-controlled Congress in his first term as president. That fight led to a temporary shutdown of government offices.
Now, President Obama faces an opposition-controlled House for the last two years of his term. Mark Penn advised President Clinton, and says President Obama will need Republican help to get things done.
MARK PENN: "Right now I think the president has got to do two key things: move to the center, focus on the economy."
STEVE EMBER: Mr. Obama has agreed to extend the tax cuts from the Bush administration for all Americans for two more years. He had wanted to extend them for all except the wealthiest Americans, but he compromised with Republicans.
FAITH LAPIDUS: Conservative commentator Amy Holmes also believes the president should move to the political center.
AMY HOLMES: "I think in the next two years, if President Obama does move to the center, if he does triangulate, much like Bill Clinton did, and pursue policies where there is common ground with Republicans, he can get small things done."
The president will soon offer some idea of how much his plans have or have not changed when he gives his State of the Union speech.
STEVE EMBER: At the White House, a reorganization has begun, in part to prepare for Mr. Obama's re-election campaign in two thousand twelve. Among the changes: the president's spokesman announced last week that he is leaving. Press secretary Robert Gibbs will become a private consultant advising President Obama.
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