In the budget discussion there has been a lot of talk by opponents of President Obama's budget that the spending he wants to do will increase the deficit. Well, the American People don't seem to mind that because President Obama is lining up with their priorities:
When all three questions are analyzed together, 30% of Americans prioritize spending over the deficit on all three issues -- health care, education, and new energy technology -- while just 17% prioritize deficit reduction in all three cases. But most Americans (53%) do not take a consistent position on increased spending versus the deficit and instead express different views depending on the issue.
According to the poll 59% to 35% think spending more to fix health care is more important than reducing the deficit. 58% to 38% think spending more on education is more important than reducing the deficit. 49% to 45% think it's more important to spend on energy efficiency. So all of that whining by centrist Democrats and Republicans isn't connecting. And on top of all that, people think Obama's policies will actually help reduce the deficit at the same time.
President Obama's gets it, as noted in his remarks on the budget illustrate:
This moment is one of great paradox and promise: while there are millions of Americans trying to find work, there is also so much work to be done. That’s why the recovery Act and our Budget will make long overdue investments in priorities—like clean energy, education, health care, and a new infrastructure—that are necessary to keep us strong and competitive in the 21st Century. To improve the quality of our health care while lowering its cost, we will make the immediate investments needed to computerize all of America’s medical records within five years while protecting the privacy of patients. This is a necessary step to reducing waste, eliminating red tape, and avoiding the need to repeat expensive medical tests. We also will fundamentally reform our health care system, delivering quality care to more Americans while reducing costs for us all. This will make our businesses more competitive and ease a significant and growing burden middle-class families are bearing.
[snip]
To give our children a fair shot to thrive in a global, information-age economy, we will equip thousands of schools, community colleges, and universities with 21st Century classrooms, labs, and libraries. We’ll provide new technology and new training for teachers so that students in Chicago and Boston can compete with kids in Beijing for the high-tech, high-wage jobs of the future. We will invest in innovation, and open the doors of college to millions of students. We will pursue new reforms—lifting standards in our schools and recruiting, training, and rewarding a new generation of teachers. And in an era of skyrocketing college tuitions, we will make sure that the doors of college remain open to children from all walks of life.
Either the messaging on the budget is getting through thanks to all of the PR he was doing on it, or he already had his thumb on the pulse of the American people and is LISTENING to them. Either way, right now they are on his side.
There are also individual fact sheets on his education and health care policies (I'm posting the intro only, and you can click the graphs for larger pictures):
Education:
With a Fiscal Year 2010 Budget of $46.7 billion for the Department of Education, the President is committed to educational excellence at all levels. Building on investments in the Recovery Act to bolster early childhood education, this Budget supports states’ "Zero to Five" systems. To strengthen and reform public schools and meet the needs of all students, the Administration will utilize programs funded by the Recovery Act and new Budget initiatives to work with states to develop rigorous standards and assessments, support and reward effective teaching, invest in best practices, and improve student achievement. Expanding opportunities for higher education is another priority of this Budget, which modernizes Federal student loans, builds on an increase in Pell awards that was included in the Recovery Act, and makes the new $2,500 American Opportunity Tax Credit permanent. The Budget includes a new five-year, $2.5 billion Access and Completion Incentive Fund to support innovative state efforts to help low-income students complete college.
Health & Human Services:
The Budget lays the groundwork for comprehensive reform ofthe American health care system, most notably by setting aside a reserve fund of over $630 billion during 10 years to help finance health reform. The reserve fund is financed by re-balancing the tax code and achieving health care savings in three areas: aligning incentives toward quality, promoting efficiency and accountability, and encouraging shared responsibility. Even before this Budget was released, the Administration took major steps to bring the Nation closer to comprehensive health reform.In one of his first official acts, the President signed into law the reauthorization of the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides coverage for an additional four million uninsured children in CHIP and Medicaid by FY 2013. In addition, investments were included in the Recovery Act designed to help slow health care spending growth – which is the key driver of the nation’s overall long-term fiscalgap. Specifically, the Recovery Act puts us on a path to modernize the health care system and to deliver better care while reducing unnecessary costs by investing in electronic medical records, improved information on what treatments and tests work best -- so-called comparative effectiveness research -- and an historic $1 billion investment in prevention. The Budget builds on these investments and also supports families by providing additional funding for affordable, high-quality child care, expanding Early Head Start and Head Start, and creating
I think I'm aligned with the majority in this instance, as some (or most) of you know by now, the issue most important to me (and a HUGE reason I was and still am such an ardent support of President Obama) is education. I'm really scared for the kids coming up behind me. Every day another budget is cut, and one of the first places they cut unfortunately is education. I still remember hearing about Bush cutting education funding to fund his wars causing subjects like music and art to be cut out of schools in favor of the subjects that will be tested for No Child Left Behind. Part of the reason it really bothers me that music is being cut is because music is such a HUGE part of my life, and was a HUGE part of my schooling from the fourth grade through undergrad. In fact, I paid for a nice chunk of my undergraduate schooling on a band scholarship. For more on my love of music and how it impacted my life, see this diary.
As this budget document points out education has suffered a lot recently, and I'm glad that the American people are behind President Obama when it comes to fixing it.
I'm not quite as passionate on health care outside of costs need to be reduced. I'm one of the millions of uninsured in this country, and I have been since I aged out of my mother's health insurance, and I can really tell the difference between not having insurance, it's a drastic difference. Hopefully they will be able to get health care under control in the next year because I know that I, and millions of others like me, don't go to the doctor until it's absolutely necessary and that's not the best way to stay healthy.
The Pew Poll had another nice little tidbit to it 70% of the people polled have a "great deal/fair amount" of confidence in President Obama's ability to fix the economy, compared to only 38% of then trusting the GOP in Congress.
Two-thirds of Americans are optimistic that Barack Obama's policies will improve economic conditions in the country. This includes 91% of Democrats, 63% of independents and 39% of Republicans. This favorable outlook even extends to the budget deficit, which has been a contentious aspect of his overall economic platform.
By a 54%-to-36% margin, more Americans are optimistic than pessimistic that Obama's policies will reduce the budget deficit over the long term. As with views of the impact of Obama's economic policies, there is a huge partisan gap in opinions about the impact his policies will have on the budget deficit. More than eight-in-ten Democrats (81%) say they are optimistic that Obama's policies will reduce the deficit over the long term, compared with fewer than half of independents (47%) and just 26% of Republicans.
An analysis shows that optimism about whether Obama's policies will improve the economy is more closely associated with his job approval rating than is optimism about whether his policies will reduce the budget deficit. The converse also is true: While 78% of those who are pessimistic that his policies will fix the economy disapprove of his job performance, a smaller percentage (60%) of those who are pessimistic about the deficit disapprove.
In fact, being the party of "no" is really hurting the GOP image (even more than Bush did):
Most people also believe that Republican leaders have not clearly articulated their opposition to Obama's economic policies. While 54% of Americans say that Obama has clearly explained his policies, just 25% say that Republicans in Congress have clearly explained why they oppose his approach. Even among Republicans themselves, as many say their party's leaders have failed to clearly articulate their position (42%) as say they have explained themselves clearly (41%).
The Republicans have the wrong PRIORITIES. They are only concerned with winning the next election and getting the "power" back, I think their actions over the last few months have more than adequately demonstrated that (just look at the crap going on in Minnesota with the full blessing of the GOP that's willing to start WWIII to keep Franken from being seated). That is why the American people aren't with the Republicans, they don't seem to be serious about fixing the problems we face.
I normally don't put a lot of stock into polls, but I find this poll to be really heartening, if we can turn those numbers into activism to get the legislation through Congress that we need, I think this administration can do GREAT things.