Posted By: Eugene Taylor

Sat Nov 11, 9:58 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Just days after Democrats took over
Congress, Americans embraced their top goals and President
George W. Bush's job approval rating slid to 31 percent,
according to a Newsweek poll issued on Saturday.
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Huge majorities of those polled said they approved of the
legislative priorities cited by Democratic leaders after their
party seized control of the Senate and the House of
Representatives from Republicans, the magazine said.

But they also expressed concerns that Democrats might seek
to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq too quickly or hamper the
administration's efforts to combat terrorism, it said.

The poll surveyed 1,006 adults on Thursday and Friday,
following the Democrats' midterm election victory on Tuesday.
It had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

The strongest support, 92 percent, was for lowering drug
prices for retirees on Medicare by allowing the government to
negotiate directly with drug companies. Some three-quarters of
respondents said it should be a top priority, according to
Newsweek.

Americans also supported raising the federal minimum wage
(89 percent), investigating government contracts in Iraq (89
percent) and cutting the interest rate of federal student loans
(88 percent).

Bush's 31-percent job approval rating, down from 35 percent
a week earlier, was a new low in Newsweek's polling. Some 63
percent disapproved of the Republican president's job
performance, and a full two-thirds agreed that "he won't be
able to get much done" in the last two years of his term.

The drop in Bush's approval rating came after Wednesday's
resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who had been
a lightning rod for criticism of the administration's handling
of the war in Iraq.

While a bare majority of 51 percent called the Democrats'
victory "a good thing," even more said they were concerned
about some of the actions a Democratic Congress might take,
including 78 percent who were somewhat or very concerned that
it would seek too hasty a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Another 69 percent said they were concerned that the new
Congress would keep the administration "from doing what is
necessary to combat terrorism," and two-thirds said they were
concerned it would spend too much time investigating the
administration and Republican scandals.

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