Fox News Poll Asks Whether Obama Needs To Apologize To Bush Over The National Debt

AP

Fox News released a monthly poll Wednesday night that shines similar light on President Barack Obama's downward-trending job approval and voters' concerns about the federal debt.

One of the network's looks at the debt, however, goes far beyond the normal poll question:

"During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama said it was 'unpatriotic' for President George W. Bush to add $4 trillion dollars to the national debt. More than $6 trillion dollars has been added to the debt since President Obama took office. Do you think Obama owes Bush an apology?"

Even though the question was phrased in an inducing way, only 50 percent of respondents said that Obama does owe Bush an apology. On the other hand, 46 percent said he did not. Independents were split evenly at 48-48.

The Fox News poll also asked voters whether they think Obama can reinstate the temporarily canceled White House tours. Sixty-three percent think he can, but it's not exactly clear whether the White House or the Secret Service would handle that.

And it asked whether voters thought "reducing the federal budget deficit is a worthy goal in and of itself, or not." This refers to comments White House press secretary Jay Carney made in January, when he said that deficit-reduction must be paired with economic growth.