When it comes to America’s finances, would you say the US gov’t is generally heading in the right direction, or do you think things are generally on the wrong track?

Right direction (17%) – "It's always a painful process when trying to rightsize a grossly mismanaged budget. Some things work and other things don't...or take longer to have an impact - we all know this from managing our own personal finances. Regardless, I think this is generally headed in the right direction. The government shutdown, although annoying at best and devastating at worst, provides us insight into the fact that there are fundamental disagreements on how to use taxpayer dollars between the right and left. It seems like the Senate Dems are willing to hold government employees hostage until they get what they want, which doesn't even apply to most Americans. Although I don't agree with everything happening on either side of the aisle right now, I'm curious to see how it all plays out."

• "Clearly, things are headed in the right direction. You can’t change years and years of fiscal irresponsibility in one year. You can see from the numbers that the debt improved slightly. We need to keep moving in this direction."

Wrong track (75%) – "I appreciate the need to cut costs and trim waste, but the current government is trimming in the wrong places and then taking those savings and wasting them on pet projects such as the White House Ballroom. If current leaders really cared about America's finances, they would set the example by cutting some of their own spending, including their lifetime benefits and outrageous salaries and the ability to continue receiving salaries when they can't keep their government open. Shame on all of them."

• "Successive administrations and congresses over the past few decades have been unwilling to deal with the growing deficit. It seems unlikely that that attitude will substantially change and it seems like that will eventually catch up to us."

"We are cutting the wrong programs (help for those in need) and leaving the business subsidies and give aways in place. Plus of course, letting a bunch of income, much of it derived from favorable tax policies, untaxed. If this administration is such a good bunch of businessmen, why are they leaving such huge amounts of money on the table?"

• "There is no strategy to decreasing our deficit and increasing revenue sources. Tariffs and immigration is hurting industries and farmers. We are headed to a self made recession."

"As long as the President is handling the finances that only Congress actually has the power to manage through allocations and budgeting for the twelve appropriation bills that make up the federal budget, American finances will be strained and we will most likely see a noticible decline in the different markets."

• "Entitlement programs and reckless spending need to stop. Both parties spend like they are using mom and dad’s credit cards. Enough is enough and the free loaders in society need to contribute to their own support."

"Cutting education and other social programs as well as jobs is not the way to decrease spending, especially when you increase the debt by 200 billion dollars. Instead, increase corporate taxes to match the spending budget, and cut administrative salaries."

Unsure/other (8%) – "There are concerning increases, particularly in the area of guaranteed payments on social programs. It was great to see tariffs boosting the revenue - offsetting other spending. That's in the right direction. And the objective to target 3% of GDP is a responsible objective. Yet, to get there, where do you cut or how do you increase revenue other than increasing taxes? Without an answer to this, the only answer is deeper cuts on nonguaranteed payments. But you can only cut so far before the only places left are those payments. Maybe we need to be responsible an dive into the unpleasant actions of cutting there. But that is beyond the president alone to act."