Looks like the Village has finally succeeded in imposing its world view on the rest of us. Greg Sargent has the
depressing details. Whereas polling since the Great Recession began has consistently shown jobs and the economy as the major concern for Americans,
...this morning brings a new poll from the Washington Post and Pew Research that finds a whopping 81 percent now think the deficit is a major problem that should be dealt with now, rather than when the economy improves. Tellingly, that number has jumped even among Democrats.
When you have leading officials in both parties—starting with all Republicans and a handful of moderate Dems—acting as if reining in the deficit is so urgent that it requires more attention than creating jobs, people start to tell pollsters they agree. This helps create a climate in which Dems lose any incentive to make the case for more government spending to prime the recovery, which begins to vanish from the conversation.
Meanwhile, the other side continues to hammer away at reining in spending as the way to resuscitate the economy. Dems, anxious that Republicans will be seen as the only ones proposing solutions, nod in agreement and pick a fight over how much we should cut. The public hears an ever growing chorus of bipartisan agreement that the deficits and spending are our number one problem. The case that government can create jobs continues to fade. And so on...and so on...
And watch the GOP pivot to talking about nothing but job creation and Obama and the Democrats' failure to do so in, say three months. But for now, as digby sez, bring on the austerity. "And now that the entire village has convinced everyone that the deficit is going to kill us all in our beds, when it fails to correct the economic malaise, people will lose faith in government even more! It's a twofer!"