Mar 23, 2011
CBS News has released a new poll and, not surprisingly, with official unemployment around nine percent, it found that an overwhelming 51 percent of Americans said jobs/economy is the most important problem facing the country. By comparison, the national debt comes in second with a mere seven percent of Americans saying it is the most important problem, followed by health care with five percent.
When asked to choose what should be a higher priority between just cutting government spending or creating jobs, by a greater than two-to-one margin, Americans choose job creations. A full 63 percent think job creation should be the higher priority, while only 26 percent choose spending cuts, with 11 percent choosing both.
Yet our politicians seem to have either not have gotten the memo or simply don't care. Washington has fallen deep into the grips of a full blown wave of deficit hysteria to justify domestic spending cuts. (Although the hysteria does always temporarily vanish when more money is needed for more wars)
The American people have at least taken notice that their elected representatives have totally abandoned their concerns about jobs and the economy.
Majorities feel that everyone in Washington pays too little attention on job creation. Fifty-three percent think President Obama spends too little time on the issue of jobs 68 percent feel Congressional Republicans give it too little time, and 68 percent believe Congressional Democrats spend too little time on jobs.
On just a purely political level, this speaks to a profound failure in our two-party system. Normally, a political party should be in a full-blown panic desperately trying to rectify the problem that two-thirds of the electorate believes the party spends too little time working on-what is overwhelmingly the top priority with the voters. Yet, if anything, it seems both parties are spending even less time focused job creation, as if the Washington elites have simply gotten bored with the whole jobs thing.
The total disconnect between the concerns of regular people and the Washington political elites has rarely been so blatantly obvious, and yet the gap seems to grow almost daily.
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Jon Walker
Jon Walker is political writer who has written for FireDogLake, Vice, The Intercept, @TheProspect and The Week. He is an expert on health care policy and the politics of health care reform.
CBS News has released a new poll and, not surprisingly, with official unemployment around nine percent, it found that an overwhelming 51 percent of Americans said jobs/economy is the most important problem facing the country. By comparison, the national debt comes in second with a mere seven percent of Americans saying it is the most important problem, followed by health care with five percent.
When asked to choose what should be a higher priority between just cutting government spending or creating jobs, by a greater than two-to-one margin, Americans choose job creations. A full 63 percent think job creation should be the higher priority, while only 26 percent choose spending cuts, with 11 percent choosing both.
Yet our politicians seem to have either not have gotten the memo or simply don't care. Washington has fallen deep into the grips of a full blown wave of deficit hysteria to justify domestic spending cuts. (Although the hysteria does always temporarily vanish when more money is needed for more wars)
The American people have at least taken notice that their elected representatives have totally abandoned their concerns about jobs and the economy.
Majorities feel that everyone in Washington pays too little attention on job creation. Fifty-three percent think President Obama spends too little time on the issue of jobs 68 percent feel Congressional Republicans give it too little time, and 68 percent believe Congressional Democrats spend too little time on jobs.
On just a purely political level, this speaks to a profound failure in our two-party system. Normally, a political party should be in a full-blown panic desperately trying to rectify the problem that two-thirds of the electorate believes the party spends too little time working on-what is overwhelmingly the top priority with the voters. Yet, if anything, it seems both parties are spending even less time focused job creation, as if the Washington elites have simply gotten bored with the whole jobs thing.
The total disconnect between the concerns of regular people and the Washington political elites has rarely been so blatantly obvious, and yet the gap seems to grow almost daily.
Jon Walker
Jon Walker is political writer who has written for FireDogLake, Vice, The Intercept, @TheProspect and The Week. He is an expert on health care policy and the politics of health care reform.
CBS News has released a new poll and, not surprisingly, with official unemployment around nine percent, it found that an overwhelming 51 percent of Americans said jobs/economy is the most important problem facing the country. By comparison, the national debt comes in second with a mere seven percent of Americans saying it is the most important problem, followed by health care with five percent.
When asked to choose what should be a higher priority between just cutting government spending or creating jobs, by a greater than two-to-one margin, Americans choose job creations. A full 63 percent think job creation should be the higher priority, while only 26 percent choose spending cuts, with 11 percent choosing both.
Yet our politicians seem to have either not have gotten the memo or simply don't care. Washington has fallen deep into the grips of a full blown wave of deficit hysteria to justify domestic spending cuts. (Although the hysteria does always temporarily vanish when more money is needed for more wars)
The American people have at least taken notice that their elected representatives have totally abandoned their concerns about jobs and the economy.
Majorities feel that everyone in Washington pays too little attention on job creation. Fifty-three percent think President Obama spends too little time on the issue of jobs 68 percent feel Congressional Republicans give it too little time, and 68 percent believe Congressional Democrats spend too little time on jobs.
On just a purely political level, this speaks to a profound failure in our two-party system. Normally, a political party should be in a full-blown panic desperately trying to rectify the problem that two-thirds of the electorate believes the party spends too little time working on-what is overwhelmingly the top priority with the voters. Yet, if anything, it seems both parties are spending even less time focused job creation, as if the Washington elites have simply gotten bored with the whole jobs thing.
The total disconnect between the concerns of regular people and the Washington political elites has rarely been so blatantly obvious, and yet the gap seems to grow almost daily.
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