It's the Economy -- As If We Didn't Know

Someone has to tell Obama the US economy can create a lot of jobs if it is set free to create them. But if we are going to stifle job growth due to unfounded claims of risks to the atmosphere that will take 100 years to affect us, then we have submitted our future to the whims of the cranks and nuts who fail to understand that it takes cheap energy to build a nation and to advance the world.

Public's Priorities for 2010: Economy, Jobs, Terrorism
Energy Concerns Fall, Deficit Concerns Rise

Summary of Findings

As Barack Obama begins his second year in office, the public’s priorities for the president and Congress remain much as they were one year ago. Strengthening the nation’s economy and improving the job situation continue to top the list. And, in the wake of the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, defending the country from future terrorist attacks also remains a top priority.

At the same time, the public has shifted the emphasis it assigns to two major policy issues: dealing with the nation’s energy problem and reducing the budget deficit. About half (49%) say that dealing with the nation’s energy problem should be a top priority, down from 60% a year ago. At the same time, there has been a modest rise in the percentage saying that reducing the budget deficit should be a top priority, from 53% to 60%.

Other policy priorities show little change from a year ago. For example, despite the ongoing debate over health care reform, about as many now call reducing health care costs a top priority (57%) as did so in early 2009 (59%). In fact, the percentage rating health care costs a top priority is lower now than it was in both 2008 (69%) and 2007 (68%).

In addition, the percentage placing top priority on providing health insurance to the uninsured stands at 49%. That is little changed from a year ago and off its high of 61% in January 2001. Notably, there is now a wider partisan gap in opinion about this issue than for any of the other 20 issues in the survey: fully 75% of Democrats rate providing health insurance to the uninsured as a top priority compared with just 26% of Republicans.

More than six-in-ten Americans say securing the Social Security system (66%) and securing the Medicare system (63%) should be top priorities for Obama and Congress. About as many (65%) say that improving the educational system should be a top policy priority. For all three items, public evaluations are not significantly different than they were one year ago.

In the wake of the financial crisis, the public does not place increased financial regulation among its top policy priorities. Fewer than half (45%) say stricter regulation of financial institutions should be a top priority for the president and Congress.

Budget Deficit and Energy

The priority given to reducing the budget deficit has risen seven points over the last year; in early 2009, 53% of the public called deficit reduction a top priority compared with 60% in the current survey. Both Republicans (+10 points) and Democrats (+8 points) have become more likely to say this is a top priority.

Global Warming and the Environment

Dealing with global warming ranks at the bottom of the public’s list of priorities; just 28% consider this a top priority, the lowest measure for any issue tested in the survey. Since 2007, when the item was first included on the priorities list, dealing with global warming has consistently ranked at or near the bottom. Even so, the percentage that now says addressing global warming should be a top priority has fallen 10 points from 2007, when 38% considered it a top priority. Such a low ranking is driven in part by indifference among Republicans: just 11% consider global warming a top priority, compared with 43% of Democrats and 25% of independents.

Jobs, Economy and Terrorism Defense

Strengthening the nation’s economy, improving the job situation and defending the country from future terrorist attacks are far-and-away the top three policy priorities for the public. No other item comes within 14 points. Last year, both the economy and jobs edged ahead of defending the nation against terrorism as top priorities. In 2008, the economy and terrorism defense were virtually tied atop the priority list, while somewhat fewer people expressed concern over jobs. In 2006 and 2007, the public was more concerned about terrorism than it was about economic issues.

Lulled by Sound of Obama's Voice, Not his Words

In his speech two nights ago, Obama repeated campaign slogans, post election statements and post inaugural statements.. The only new aspect was the tone. Instead of playing Chicken Little/Cassandra and claiming "catastrophe" is at hand, he delivered his latest oratory of utopian slush with a more hopeful fervor. He omitted "catastrophe" from his vocabulary for the evening. But he mentioned "crisis" six times -- a record low. Perhaps someone told him that every time he speaks, financial markets drop.

But if he's mindful of his impact on financial markets, it's odd that he most of his pronouncements of the last few months into a single presentation. However, it was no shock in the morning when the financial markets dropped in response.

Bottom line -- instead of inspiring confidence in the places where it matters, he showed people once again that he is lost in the woods. He's got his Big Three. Energy, Healthcare and Education. In his world of scientific and financial alchemy, the sun, wind and water will supply the energy we will convert into a useful form -- and the conversion will happen in sufficient quantities and at low cost, even though today, oil and gas supply energy at a tiny fraction of the cost of these alternatives. However, he did introduce a contrivance to raise the cost of oil and gas -- for Americans. The carbon cap, which will be ignored by all developing nations and most others as well.

It's a bad sign when oil and gas are cheap but the president says we're going to use other forms of energy anyway. He's determined to increase unnecessary and pointless government spending when we can least afford it. His plan will do little to reduce the aggregate consumption of oil and gas in the US, but it will punish the users -- people who heat their homes with oil and gas, building owners who do the same, and everyone and every business that depends on oil and gas for transportation fuel. That includes airlines, shipping and trucking. Obama wants to force millions of businesses into bankruptcy because they depend on cheap fuel. What a guy.

Healthcare. Yeah. Let the government run it. Sure. The government runs the public school system. Some of it is good and a lot of it is bad. But all of it is expensive. New York City spent over $15,000 per student in the latest fiscal year. But critics say that's not enough. There's a carryover here. New York State spent $45 BILLION on Medicaid in 2006 -- the latest year for which figures are available -- and that works out to about $10,000 per person for the year. But critics say the Medicaid system needs more money. In other words, fraud is out of control and the fraudsters want more because it's so easy to rip off the system. Just imagine the possibilities for fraud in a national system? On top of that, when word gets out that illegal aliens sneaking into the US get free comprehensive healthcare instead of merely free emergency care, the caravans will form at the Mexican border and all sea lanes will be clogged with boats and leaky tubs of every description.

Education. Obama seems to think everyone should go to college. I guess that means the US will depend on unschooled people from other countries to handle all the non-intellectual work that his Stimulus Plan requires. Building all those roads and bridges and all the other stuff he has in mind takes a lot of strong backs and people able to operate tools and equipment, not calculators or word processors. He wants to give tax breaks to parents who send their kids to college. But tax breaks translate immediately into higher tuition. Obama, however, is blind to the obvious.

Meanwhile, Obama wants higher pay for teachers and new school buildings. Okay. But there's zero evidence higher pay or new buildings improve results. Results are mostly a function of the kids themselves. Those who are willing to go through the day and learn a little are the ones who benefit. But those who are disruptive impair the experience for everyone else -- and raise costs a lot. Unfortunately, there are too many of the latter.

Can schools do something about the disruptive kids? Perhaps a little. But not a lot. They bring in all the social pathologies of their lives when they come to school. But no school can reorder the lives of students when they are outside their classrooms.

If Obama had a voice like Dennis Kucinich or Robert Kennedy Jr., voters might have rejected him. Unfortunately he's got a set of pipes that lull listeners into accepting anything he says because it seems like music.