by Mark Silva
As President Barack Obama starts his second year in office — with his first State of the Union address scheduled Wednesday night — the public’s priorities look much like they did when he was sworn into office: Strengthening the nation’s economy and improving the job situation. Eight in 10 of all Americans surveyed call that job No. 1.
Considering the fact that unemployment stood at 7.7 percent at the president’s inauguration, and at 10 percent in December, it’s not surprising that the economy still tops the list of issues which people name in the Pew Research Center’s surveys of public priorities. (See the list from the Pew Center at the left.)
At the same time, another big issue has risen in importance in the public’s eye: The percentage saying that reducing the federal budget deficit should be a top priority has grown from 53 percent to 60 percent over the year.
Watch for Obama to tout his support for a bipartisan budget commission to grapple with the growing problems of spending surpassing revenues on Wednesday night.
And at the same time, some other big issues have lost some traction: The share saying the nation’s energy problem should be a top priority has slipped from 60 percent to 49 percent in the past year. With the “cap-and-trade” energy bill that passed the House last year with the support of a handful of Republicans mired in the Senate — and the Senate soon facing a 41-vote Republican minority — there may not be much talk about energy this week.
The latest survey of the Pew Research Center also finds that health care has slipped from a top priority among 61 percent in January 2001 to 49 percent.
And “notably, there is now a wider partisan gap in opinion about this issue than for any of the 21 issues included in the survey,” the Pew Center’s Andrew Kohut reports today: “75 percent of Democrats rate providing health insurance to the uninsured as a top priority compared with just 26 percent of Republicans” agreeing.
The president is sure to address health care in the State of the Union address, though he is counting on congressional leaders to sort out the way forward on the issue now that his party faces a loss of a filibuster-proof Senate.
Just 28 precent say that dealing with global warming should be a top policy priority, largely unchanged from a year ago. This is the lowest measure for any issue tested in the survey.
One in four of those surveyed say Obama’s State of the Union address will be more important than previous addresses.
The Pew survey of 1,504 adults conducted Jan. 6-10 carries a possible margin of error of plus or minus three percentage points.
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