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In what is something like the 50th survey to show the same thing, a new Bloomberg poll (PDF) found that by far the top issue for Americans is jobs, and that a clear majority want the federal government to be focused on the priority of creating jobs instead of cutting spending.
Which of the following do you see as the most important issue facing the country right
now?
43% Unemployment and jobs
29 The federal deficit and government spending
12 Health care
7 the war in Afghanistan
3 Immigration
N/A The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
4 Other
2 Not sure
Which of the following do you see as the more important priority for the federal government right now—creating jobs or cutting spending?
56 Creating jobs
42 Cutting spending
2 Not sure
Let me simplify all the recent polling data for the politicians who seem to find it far too complex to understand: With nine percent unemployment, people really want jobs right now–not spending cuts.
Despite the fact that regular Americans overwhelmingly want their government to be focused on creating jobs, and economists from Goldman Sachs, Moody’s and Macroeconomics Advisers project the cuts sought by Republicans would result in hundreds of thousands of fewer jobs, right now, Washington is obsessed with the debate over whether or not Democrats agreeing to $4, $6 or $30 billion in more cuts qualifies as meeting Republicans half way.
If the Democratic party can’t defend their traditional stance of having the government help people get jobs during bad times because it is the right thing to do, you would at least hope they defend it for the crass political reason that it is clearly the popular thing to do.
It seems the party hasn’t just lost touch with its roots, it has lost touch with reality.
55 Comments
The dems haven’t lost touch with their roots or reality. They know who they work for and it ain’t us.
Well. Elections have consequences. The Health Care Bill polled below 50% and you still passed it. So the way i see it, the American people elected conservatives so the conservatives have the mandate to Governor. Anyway the largest midterm landslide has discredited any belief in popular support for progressive ideology.
slaves had jobs.
scroll, peeps. scroll
Well elections have consequences.
Jobs are the number one issue. If we all can’t get behind that, we are neither progressive nor democrats.
we have got to stop operation under the concept that
DC is a contest between FDR and Reagan
what we have in DC is really a match between Bush and Reagan
Obama = Reagan
a below avg Dem would have slaughtered the GOP in 2010.
the only issue in the USA for last two years has been JOBS.
Michael Moore said it best what we have been watching for the last two years is ULTRA rich/Corporate over reach
Dems came out in 2008, thinking they were electing a new FDR, and got Obama the man who worships HOOVER
Michael Moore on Rachel just mentioned that 400 Americans (real Americans??) have more assets than 150,000,000 Americans (workers and wanna-workers) combined. Yes. America: The World’s Newest Banana Republic. Time to take to the streets. Where’s Norske to keep us moving on this.
“The USA has only one political party: the Republican Party, a branch of which calls itself the Democratic Party.” – Susan Sontag
And by that logic you should have shut up and let the 2008 Dem wave agenda pass.
But, you didn’t, did you Blanche?
this says it all
400 Americans have more assets than 150 million Americans? so much for the American Dream
sounds like USA and Nightmare on Elm Street have a lot in common
time to WAKE UP and go to the streets Americans
that says it all
I’ve got kids, grandkids and a great-grandbaby on the way. I didn’t particularly care for the 1950s — fathers at work and mothers on Miltown — but it sure beats what’s coming for my peeps: fathers and mothers begging for work and grandbabes eating grass. Why do Republicans hate Americans?
I thnk the world has changed and we are making foolish comparisons. Ever since Citizens United, rich people and corporations have had an outsized impact on the national dialogue. It started with the health care town halls. If you’re a politician, you need that money to win anything. I don’t care if you are Walker or Obama. The middle class is evaporating before our eyes and the thugs are convincing everyone that you need to fight the devil deficit. Those folks in WI are fighting the bastards.
Hey Boehner: I realize this will be difficult for you, but put on your thinking cap and try to keep up.
The 2010 vote did not express an advocacy for (so-called) “conservative principles” (which, as a matter of act, the right-wingers in this country wouldn’t recognize if they came up and bit them on the ass). What it DID express is total dissatisfaction with the less than half-assed measures taken to create jobs for the gazillion Americans who were put out in the streets as a direct result of the Wall Street criminals having blown up the economy.
Either stay awake, or go somewhere else to drop your steaming piles…
Polls only matter to politicians when they reinforce their agendas.
And if it doesn’t they’ll pay a group to come up with a poll that does.
Only thing that sways votes is $$$
I don’t think the Rs hate or love America. These are really empty people whose only measure of life is money. They think that money makes them special. They want more and more to fill up the hole inside themselves and, of course, it will never be filled. Inside they know they are nothing and it really makes them angry.
Wall Street banks and multinational corporations are vampires sucking the lifeblood out of our nation. Once fattened up from draining pensions, siphoning off social security, and bleeding trade deficits, they kick back enough to fund zombie politician campaigns.
The only way to drive a stake through these bloodsuckers is for campaign financing, which the vipers at the SCOTUS took care of in Citizens United.
Power to Wisconsin unions, Libyan rebels, Egyptian demonstrators: they all fight the same thing — a rich overclass.
The streets are our friend. We can use it to turn people around and get out the message. Otherwise you will only hear the sound of money from the thugs on the airwaves.
Yes.
Mass movements are also very effective, and that’s what has to happen now. Wisconsin is setting the bar. The rest of the country needs to follow suit.
So whose ass did you suck that idiot slogan out of, Cantor’s or McConnell’s? Don’t keep us in suspense. We’ve got a pool going…
Until we are able to reverse Citizens United, then Wisconsin is the model we have to follow to stop this shit.
Bingo.
Yup.
Never mind. Late to the dance on what I had written.
“Elections have consequences”.
-Barack Obama, 2009
Man, these fish are easy to shoot; we need a bigger barrel.
Yeah, we know. Assholes pulled a fast one. heard some talk now about a general strike. I don’t know what can help but if we don’t fight somewhere we will lose every fight all the way to the poor house. What’s next SS?
Mass demonstrations work if the media actually reports on them truthfully.
The MSM has no problem running foreign “average joe” demonstrations 24/7. But, they sure won’t upset their corporate overlords by giving american middle class demonstrations the same coverage.
But they’re not real Americans if they don’t wear teabags as clothing and want to secede.
the USA currently has a lot of group think taking place
Gov. Walker and a lot of GOPers mis-read the 2010 election big time :)
Gov. Walker irrational behavior, will do, what a lot of us thought Obama was going to do, and that is wipe out the GOP
there is a time and place for everything.
one should never attack workers in a depression.
me thinks Gov. Walker just poured a lot of GAS on a situation that was already white hot. so a lot of people will be burned because of Gov. Walker actions
the GOP can kiss the Rust belt good bye!
Maybe these stupid six-pack swillin’ Walmart-shoppin’ Fox-news-watching morans will realize that voting for republicans is the same thing as voting against their own self-interest every single time. And yes, the “Tea Party”/teahadists = Republicans no matter what Faux News says.
Republicans in office care nothing for the average American unless their “average” bank account is >$1,000,000.
Wrong. It only shows that money can buy elections, since Citizens United. But the people will take matters into their own hands given the misuse of power all around us.
Elections have consequences if Republicans get elected. Otherwise its just ACORN and George Soros stealing elections again. Damn them!
I very much hope he has overplayed his hand. The will of the people may overtake the money. time will tell. Maybe
Sometimes I think the middle class/ working poor in this country are just too diverse to come together in a meaningful way to actually affect public policy in a way that benefits the majority financially. I see it with social issues… Just not financial issues.
Edit: I feel that social issues are used to throw a bone to the majority. Keep us from rising up for financial issues.
you have no idea, how dumb right wingers are?
some our staff has been trying to test, and see how irrational the right has become.
some of these people really think UNIONS destroyed the USA, and Wall Street is trying to save the USA.
dumbing down America is an understatement when it comes to some of these tea baggers.
It is tough, no doubt. But once this bus get rolling, if it gets rolling, it will gobble up the Kochs and the repugs. It has started in the middle east of all places. It may not succeed but the people want to be heard.
I think that when folks can’t buy gas (it’s already $4 in CA) and can’t afford food and can’t have AC/heat, well maybe then they will wake up. I’ll never forget reading What’s the Matter With Kansas. Stooopid people needing to learn some sensibleness. Maybe the Repubs crapping on their job rights and “entitlements” will wake ‘em the fuck up.
I agree but it’ll depend on who blinks first.
from my experience the ones with the comfort of fat wallets usually have the luxury of time on their side.
I pray that isn’t the case in WI
They’re not too diverse just too damn stupid and willfully at that.
Dearie, I was just thinking about Norske earlier today.
Flamethrower!!!
I agree with your sentiment… but I think it’s more complicated than willful ignorance.
Why are they stupid? This country is screwed up on so many levels that it’s hard to envision a way forward.
Until money is taken out of politics…
i think I spoke with someone from Kansas today,
no word in the english language could capture and convey to people on this board how DUMB he was.
he basically thought the USA being a 3rd world nation was great
Getting the money out of politics wouldn’t hurt and I can’t envision a way forward now. Why are they stupid? A million reasons but a big one I think boils down to just laziness and a sense of entitlement. I’m lucky to know some recent legal immigrants and their thirst for knowledge and a better life shames every American I know, including myself.
Give them a few years of lindsey lohan, Charlie sheen, and Jersey Shores and soon they’ll be…
One Of US!
Obama is a worthless punk, but god damn I hate republicans.
What part of “put all of the unemployed back to work in living wage and good paying jobs and the deficit will disappear” do these fools not understand?
The Dems have strayed so far off the path that they don’t even know they are lost, so it’s up to all of us to tell them every minute of every day. Kind of like staging an intervention! :)
I am hoping that The Owners have overplayed their hand in WI.
For the jobs side of things, I think a WPA-style project to rebuild/repair our infrastructure would be a fine place to start. In that, I include our horribly outdated and very vulnerable power grid. Maybe our Aur Traffic Control System, too. Maybe some of those Engineers who’ve taken tech/draftsman jobs because their unemployment ran out could work on those projects.
I miss Sontag.
True. Obama is more Hoover than anything. “Win the future” sounds a lot like “prosperity is just around the corner”.
Bloomberg news: Obama Says He’s ‘Fierce’ Free-Market Advocate, Rejects Critics
This explains much of it. Anyone who understands what being a free-market advocate implies also understands that Obama just said that he’s for looting the middle class and crushing the poor. This is neoliberal Chicago Boy stuff. The same disaster which was visited on Argentina in the 1990′s, most notably under President Menem.
The ballot box had failed to stop the Chicago Boy neoliberal looting. The only way that Argentina managed to put an end to it was for the middle class and the poor to come together and hit the streets and shut the country down. But by then the drop in living standards was apocalyptic.
If ballot box’s cannot stop neoliberal extremists then I doubt opinion polls will either. Thus, Obama and the inside the beltway crowd will continue the budget cutting rather than focus on jobs.
LOL God I hope not! Their perspective is so different now. They had no clean water in their village(for example) so they appreciate every little thing. Maybe we need that kind of grinding poverty here for a while to wake up people. And if the Koch’s/Obama’s have their way we will.
Americans also wanted real health care reform and got nothing. The unemployment problem is an afterthought with Obama. He already did his job. Absolve the financial industry from any responsiblity for the economic crash, and make them and the rest of corporate America wealthier and more powerful than ever.
Democrats out of touch with their base? Yea, for the last 40 years!
Productivity has doubled since 1970. This means that you should be working half as much to maintain a 1970 standard of living or you should currently be paid twice as much to work the same amount of time. But American wages have actually decreased by 7% since 1970. Democrats have stood by and allowed their base to be screwed for the last 40 years!
Just in the last three years, productivity has increased 10%. In a $14 trillion economy that is an additional $1.4 trillion created by working the same number of hours – or about $18,000 per family.
Your wages have increased by $18000 right? Wrong.
All the additional wealth created by productivity gains has gone to the very rich and now to pay for America’s senseless foreign wars and bailouts (of the rich who should have lost everything in the 2008 Wall Street scam) you need to close your library, get rid of your cops & firemen, and put 32 kids in a classroom – so the Democrats tell us.
The rich want the Democrats in power as they are sensible and continue to transfer wealth to the elite. The elite know Republicans are crazy and their policies are failures (remember 1929 & 2008). You have four choices in the next election:
1. Don’t vote – This decreases voter turnout and puts Republicans in office;
2. Vote 3rd party – This decreases Democratic turnout and puts Republicans in office;
3. Vote Democratic – This puts Democrats in office but you still end up with conservative policy (Obama);
4. Vote Republican – This puts Republicans in office. But it also it also shows Democrats that you not only will not vote for them but that you will vote for their opponent.
Liberals voting for Republicans? This gets faux liberals out of office and places in conservatives who will implement failed policy (1929 & 2008). If only 4% of liberals in each congressional district voted for the Republican opponent, that would amount to an 8% swing in total vote – I don’t think too many faux Democrats could stand this large of a swing from their base.
Sure, Republicans will destroy the country. But that will at least allow for the opportunity to elect real liberals in the next election. Besides is 6 of 10 voting age americans continue to refuse to vote we are going to end up with conservative governments.
If McCain had won in 2008 and maybe the Republicans took both house of congress also, they would have continued funding America’s silly wars, and increasing the military (who hasn’t won a war in 65 years) budget and bailed out Wall Street – Republicans would have implemented the same policy Obama did! This would have continued to increase the deficit and driven the Teabaggers away from the Republican party. The economy would really stink now (Republican may not have spent the depression averting government stimulus) and many of those 6 of 10 non-voters would have turned out to vote in 2010. Both houses of congress would have veto proof majorties, President McCain would be trival. Just two more years suffering under failed conservative policy would have brought about a liberal majority that truly reflects American values.
So, vote Democratic in 2012 and expect another four decades of wealth transfer.