New, Major Poll Shows Again That Voters Want Jobs, Not Deficit Reduction -- Will DC Listen to the Public?

In the middle of the DC frenzy over a contrived "debt crisis" a new, major poll shows what other polls have shown: voters want Washington to act on jobs (and jobs fix deficits), especially in manufacturing, but don't think that our elected officials are paying attention. By more than two-to-one, voters want Washington to focus on job creation rather than deficit reduction.

From a press release describing this poll,

The study which included eight focus groups nationwide, along with a random national survey of 1,202 likely voters, finds that across the partisan spectrum, Democratic and Republican voters ranked job creation and rebuilding the nation's manufacturing base at the top of their list of priorities. In fact, when asked to select the most important task for Congress and the President, "creating new manufacturing jobs," which ranked just below creating jobs more generally, saw a bigger gain from 2010 (up 9%) than any other option, including deficit reduction, lower government spending, immigration reform, or addressing healthcare. Indeed, by a more than two-to-one margin (67% to 29%), voters prefer that Washington focus on job creation rather than deficit reduction.

Key Findings

Here are some of the key findings from this poll:

• When given an "either/or" choice, just 29% want Washington to focus on deficit reduction while 67% want job creation.


• "Creating manufacturing jobs in the U.S." and "strengthening manufacturing in this country" are the top voter priorities for the President.


• Only 50% of voters believe that the President is working to create manufacturing jobs - an 11% drop from 2010.


• Congress fares even worse - 41% say Democrats in Congress are working to create jobs, and 32% see the GOP working to create jobs.


• 90% have a favorable view of American manufacturing companies - up 22 points from 2010.


• 97% have a favorable view of U.S.-made goods - up 5 points from 2010.


• 94% of voters say creating manufacturing jobs is either "one of the most important" things government can do or "very important."


• 90% support Buy American policies "to ensure that taxpayer funded government projects use only U.S.-made goods and supplies wherever possible."


• 95% favor keeping "America's trade laws strong and strictly enforced to provide a level playing field for our workers and businesses."

The entire poll is available as a PDF here: Findings From A National Survey And Focus Groups Of Likely 2012 Voters.

This post originally appeared at Campaign for America's Future (CAF) at their Blog for OurFuture. I am a Fellow with CAF.

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Comments

[TexasBahr]

12:00 PM on 07/29/2011

The poll states what I believe is common sense.
Now what?
As you remember, the republican takeover of the house of representatives was based on a platform of "job creation" yet they have yet to submit even one bill that creates jobs. What will stop this from happening again? What will stop them from again promising job creation then when they are reelected they again go back to killing social programs that the vast majority of this nations population rely on during retirement or during bad financial times? If there is a lesson to be learned, and I am not convinced the republican or tea party constituents have learned this lesson, is that electing a tea party member elects an ideologue and that person will do ANYTHING to further his/her agenda INCLUDING destroying the full faith of this government to pay its own bills. Raising the debt ceiling is PAYING FOR MONEY SPENT, PRIMARILY DURING THE BUSH PRESIDENCIES and not the Obama administration. The Tea Party is turning this country into 'deadbeat' status.
Fanaticism, whether Alqaida or Tea party are bad things to avoid.

[Ronnagade]

10:13 PM on 07/28/2011

Well I'm not surprised that the pols aren't listening to us, I'd be more surprised if they were listening. If they don't do something about jobs they might all be looking for new jobs come November 2012.

[Eggsackley]

05:43 PM on 07/28/2011

The Republicans keep hammering away on the deficit, repeating over and over, ad nuaseum, "We don't have a revenue problem, We have a spending problem. WE DO HAVE A REVENUE PROB.EM. There is just not enough fat in the budget to cut into the deficit and create jobs.
WE DO HAVE A REVENUE PROBLEM. This needs to be repeated over and over by the President, Vice President, every cabinet member, and every elected official in the Democratic Party. And, every progressive person who agrees with me needs to start hitting the streets with signs at political rallies saying just that. I made one yesterday and carried it at a local rally. Another sign I am planning will say, 'WANT JOBS? RAISE TAXES! REBUILD OUR COUNTRY!
I agree that jobs is the most critical issue in America today. The Democrats have to grab that issue and run with it. The people need to be told over and over that the government needs more revenue to create job programs without running the deficit up even more.
Yes we do have a spending problem. We spend too much on the military. Our military leaders agree. They want us to spend less on the military and more on infrastructure so that our country will restore and maintain its economic strength. Agricultural subsidies need to be slashed for farmers who don't follow good soil conservation policies. But such cuts are simply not enough. WE DO HAVE A REVENUE PROBLEM.

[msblynne]

02:30 PM on 07/28/2011

And Obama was nearly crucified by the TOP for providing loans to save the US auto industry. Now, thanks to those loans, employment is up 12% in that premier American manufacturing sector. Does Obama get any credit for that gutsy move??

[cavallo]

01:52 PM on 07/28/2011

Sigh. No, of course D.C. won't listen to the public. Why? Because D.C. knows that, no matter how many polls show that the public doesn't like something, like all the U.S. wars-Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, Libya, etc., etc., D.C. knows that the public will vote for whatever republicrat comes down the pike. Preferably a nice, good-looking, usually white guy, or woman, who looks good on t.v. (emphasis on "looks good.") Doesn't make any difference what the candidate says, candidates know they can say whatever they want and do the opposite if they win. As long as whatever the winner does to put money in the pockets of the billionaires/millionaires, who contribute the millions and billions they collect to pay for the nonsense t.v. ads.

The American people will continue voting for someone in one of the two parties who will continue the havoc. American people will never change.

[angry in ct]

10:44 AM on 07/30/2011

No disagreements whatsoever with what you've stated.

But in order to combat the, "wow, I'll vote for him or her because he/she shure is purdy" voting philosophy, the Democrats need to use this simple statement when the country will be in the meat of the presidential election season:

Remember what they did last summer.