What The Voters Want: As Washington Dithers, Public Demands More Jobs
WASHINGTON — They just don't get it in Washington.
There's a gaping disconnect between what Americans care about and what President Barack Obama and Congress, Democrats and Republicans are actually doing. A new Associated Press-GfK poll tells the story: contempt for lawmakers, a bare majority approving what Obama's doing.
Or just listen to Robert Watson.
He backed Obama in 2008. He lost his job at a direct mail company in the Great Recession. And he's been looking for work ever since. Neither Obama nor Congress, Watson says, is addressing what really matters: "I'm still unemployed."
"There's nobody doing any hiring," he says. And when they are, "100 people are going for the same job." He wants Obama to focus more on creating jobs, Congress to stop the partisan games and both to remember who sent them to Washington.
"They just can't seem to agree on what's important for this country," laments Watson, 59, of Annapolis, Md. "It's just a mess."
Now look at Washington.
The White House and Congress are consumed with the partisan gridlock on overhauling health care. That issue is overshadowing everything else – even legislation in the House and Senate to provide unemployment relief.
The Senate did vote Wednesday to extend many elements of last year's economic stimulus, including help for the jobless. But that isn't final: The vote merely sends the measure into talks with the House, which is wary about some Senate provisions.
At the same time, Democrats and Republicans are jockeying for the upper hand on every issue they can ahead of this fall's midterm elections. Corruption is the latest: Each party has spent the past week painting the other as more tainted.
Job creation and economic recovery – and cooperation in Washington to achieve them – are too often taking a back seat.
The gulf between what voters are focused on and what Washington is talking most about seems as wide as the anger is deep in America, and that helps explain why people are so turned off, so furious at politicians of any stripe.
Only 22 percent of Americans – less than at any previous point in Obama's presidency – approve of Congress, the new AP-GfK poll shows. Just over half like what Obama's doing. Frustration is directed at both Republicans and Democrats. Half of all people say they want to fire their congressman.
Unemployment and the economy are among the issues Americans are most concerned about; health care trails behind those issues as well as terrorism and the federal budget deficit.
Despite promises to do things differently, Democrats and Republicans alike are engaged in the politics of usual, maneuvering for election-year advantage. And that's exactly what their constituents say they don't want. People are tired of the games. And why wouldn't they be?
Nearly 10 percent of Americans don't have jobs, and the prospects for finding them anytime soon are bleak. The Labor Department reported Wednesday that unemployment rose in 30 states in January, evidence that jobs remain scarce in most regions of the country. From coast to coast, Americans are questioning whether anyone they've elected is on their side – and actually working for them.
Even voters who supported Obama and his Democrats have soured on Washington. That's a danger for the party in power as it looks to hang onto control of the House and Senate in November. Angry voters tend to reject the status quo; that's how Democrats rose to power in Congress in 2006 and Obama won the White House in 2008. Today, voters are still furious with Washington – if not more so. And now Democrats could be blamed.
Simply listen to voters, and you'll hear their priorities – and their frustrations – loud and clear.
"The jobs, the economy is a much bigger issue for this country than trying to push this health care bill through," says Republican John Campbell of Del Rio, Texas. He wants both Obama and Congress to shift the focus – and work with each other.
"There needs to be some bipartisanship," says Campbell, 52, a warden at a federal detention center.
College student Claire Hatton of Wellington, Ohio, seems jaded at age 19.
"It doesn't seem to me like a whole lot is getting done except politics in Washington," says this self-identified independent. Enough with the arguing, enough with the fighting, she adds. "They should be working together and trying to get more things accomplished to benefit everyone."
And Obama?
"He should be doing more of what he said he would be doing," Hatton says. "He's straying off of campaign promises."
Retired kindergarten teacher Ann Heffernan of Memphis, Tenn., who doesn't belong to a political party, also questions Washington's agenda.
"They should be trying harder to get jobs for people," says Heffernan, 84.
Congress, Obama – "they just seem to be working against each other, and I don't see either one of them making big progress," she says.
"There is such a polarity" in Congress, bemoans retiree Carl Cheney, a Democrat from Wellsville, Utah.
Is government working for him?
"Heavens no," Cheney, 76, says, and launches into a blistering critique.
"Their most important job they feel is to get re-elected, and they have no concern for the nation or the public" – or what matters most to voters. His advice to lawmakers: "Try to develop a little statesmanship instead of individual greed and interest in their jobs."
Democrat Benny Newman, 79, of Tulsa, Okla., recently lost his job in a local school district because of budget cuts.
He says neither Obama nor Congress is doing right: "Just bundle them in the same bag."
"They're spending too much money," he says, adding: "The economy is not well enough to support some of the things that they're doing."
Judging by what both Obama and Congress are wrestling with, he says: "I don't think either one of them is interested in the general public."
Or, more to the point, listening to it.
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EDITOR'S NOTE – Liz Sidoti is the AP's national political writer and has covered national politics since 2003. Christine Simmons has covered Washington for the AP since 2007. AP Writers Ann Sanner and Natasha Metzler contributed to this report.
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LIZ SIDOTI and CHRISTINE SIMMONS 03/10/10 06:49 PM ET Associated Press