Americans Want Jobs, Not Political Gamesmanship from GOP

To: Congressional Democrats and Democratic Staff

Fr: Democratic Leader's Press Office

Dt: September 14, 2011

Re: Americans Want Jobs, Not Political Gamesmanship from GOP

For House Republicans - who have been in the majority for 253 days and have yet to offer a jobs agenda – today's CNN poll and Bloomberg poll make clear that doing nothing on jobs is not an option:

By a 36-point margin, Americans would rather see Congress pay more attention to creating jobs than reducing the deficit (65 percent – 29 percent). [CNN]

More than twice as many Americans say ‘unemployment and jobs' rather than ‘government spending' is the nation's most important issue (46 percent – 18 percent). Just 12 percent picked ‘the federal deficit.' [Bloomberg]

Here are some other key points from the CNN poll on America's priorities:

Three-quarters of those surveyed (74 percent) support additional federal funding for teachers and first responders.

By a 32-point margin, Americans support cutting the payroll tax for American workers (65 percent – 33 percent).

Nearly two-thirds of Americans (64 percent) favor more federal funding to build and repair roads, bridges and schools.

…and from the Bloomberg poll:

Seven in 10 Americans support President Obama's plan to increase federal funding to the states to prevent laying off teachers and first responders.

By a 14-point margin, Americans support repealing tax cuts for households making $250,000 or more a year (54 percent – 40 percent).

By a 20-point margin, Americans overwhelmingly oppose the GOP plan to end Medicare (as we know it) by turning it into a voucher program (57 percent – 37 percent).

More than 3 out of 4 Americans (76 percent) oppose the GOP plan to cut Medicaid.

Republicans say they don't want to give the President a "win." But the GOP is missing the point: Americans want jobs, not political gamesmanship.

By a 9-point margin, Americans trust President Obama more than Republicans to handle the economy (46 percent – 37 percent).

By an 8-point margin, more Americans favor the President's jobs plan (43 percent – 35 percent).