As Americans go to the polls today in several states, it might be worth asking what they care about most. The answer is pretty clear: the economy. And that should be a warning to Democrats.
In Politico’s just-released poll conducted in states with the most competitive U.S. House and Senate races, 50 percent said the economy is what concerned them most. Breaking that down, 26 percent said it was the economy in general and 12 percent pointed to jobs.
The second biggest concern after the economy is health care, though at 12 percent it is significantly lower.
Democrats own both the economy and health care, and neither issue is, shall we say, a Democratic strong point this time around.
President Obama has thrown every Keynesian trick in the book at the economy—stimulus packages, massive new federal spending, shockingly high debt, crony capitalism, new taxes, and a Fed that has doubled down by infusing an extra $4 trillion—and still the economy sputters. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported at the end of may that GDP grew by 0.1 percent in the first quarter of 2014.
The unemployment rate is down, but as the BLS points out repeatedly, that decline is in part because so many Americans have quit looking for jobs they can’t find. Labor force participation rates are at about a 35-year low.
Then there is Obamacare. Those citing health care in the Politico poll are the ones most likely to oppose Obamacare, either from an ideological standpoint or because the legislation has created problems for them. And even though health care is the highest concern for only 12 percent, I suspect it is the second highest concern for many of the other respondents.
But the Politico poll has more bad news for Democrats. Not only is the public most concerned about the two issues most associated with them, the public doesn’t care much about what the Dems really want to focus on in this election: only 2 percent stressed economic inequality first, and 3 percent chose immigration.
November is a long way off and a lot can happen between now and then. But the White House has had five years to embrace pro-growth economic policies that would have jumpstarted the economy and refused to do so. Now it owns the bad economy that has the public so concerned.