Americans do not like the way President Barack Obama is handling the scandal at the Department of Veterans Affairs, a new Gallup survey has found.
Sixty-three
percent of 1,027 adults surveyed June 5-8 said that they do not approve of how Obama has responded to the scandal involving falsified wait times and long treatment delays.
Only 29 percent said that the president was handling the matter sufficiently.
The debacle involved up to 40 deaths at the Phoenix Veteran's Administration Health Care Center, the resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, and an investigation of the agency's 42 medical centers nationwide for similar issues.
In addition, 69 percent of those Gallup surveyed said that they were following developments in the scandal either "very" or "somewhat" closely.
"The rather low rating of Obama's handling of the VA scandal is significant, especially paired with how closely Americans are following the issue," Gallup said in its analysis of the data.
When asked to suggest ways to fix the scandal, Americans offered a variety of responses. The most common response — from 16 percent of those surveyed — was to "provide better care in a more timely manner."
The next biggest response was firing all VA employees and cleaning house, which came from 11 percent of Americans surveyed.'
"The VA scandal could remain on the minds of Americans for quite some time," Gallup said. "At the moment, a strong majority of Americans are following this matter closely, and Americans give the president low marks for his handling of it.
"This may have implications for policies and politics in 2014 and beyond," Gallup said.
The poll's overall margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.