By Cliff Montgomery – Oct. 12th, 2009
Some in the Corporate Media already are crowing that Americans will not ‘tolerate’ another stimulus packageto bolster the anemic economy of Main Street.
But then again, these are the same geniuses who continually insisted that the U.S. economy was rock-solid–right up until the moment late last year when all that corporate greed, gambling and incompetence camecrashing down.
The truth? The overwhelming majority of a suffering populace are demanding that more stimulus work beperformed on America’s faltering economy, according to a major poll recently taken for the Economic PolicyInstitute (EPI), which refers to itself as “an independent, non-profit, non-partisan research institute – or ‘thinktank’ – that researches the impact of economic trends and policies on working people in the United States andaround the world.”
Below, the American Spark offers most of an informative EPI news release on the poll:
“In a recession often described as deep and severe, we now have one more adjective to add: personal.
“A new survey of public views of the economy, released today, reveals that 57 percent of Americans are closeto someone who has been laid off, 61 percent report that someone close to them has had their hours or paycut, and 44 percent of all households have experienced one or the other during the past year.
“Because the pain of this recession is striking so close to home, Americans strongly support continuinggovernment action to address unemployment.
“The Tracking the Recovery survey, conducted among 802 registered voters nationwide from September 21-23 by Hart Research Associates for the Economic Policy Institute, takes an in-depth look at Americans’experiences in this recession, their expectations for the year ahead, their views of the government’s role anddegree of success so far, and their priorities for further government action.
” ‘Unemployment and the lack of jobs remains the dominant problem on the economic agenda for votersacross party lines,’ said Hart Research’s president, Geoffrey Garin, who presented the results today at an EPIforum in Washington, D.C.
” ‘The portrait that emerges from this survey is of a majority with deep concern about the jobs situation who arelooking to the Obama administration for continued action to save and create jobs.’
“More than eight out of 10 voters (85%) believe the country is still in an economic recession. And withunemployment rates near double digits nationally and above that in many states, it’s no surprise that the vastmajority of Americans (83%) see unemployment as a big problem today, and one not likely to end soon. Whenasked what they foresee for 12 months from now, 61 percent said unemployment will still be a big problem.
“Another issue rated as a big problem by participants in the survey is the failure of wages and salaries to keepup with the cost of living. Today, 63 percent of Americans rate this as a very big or fairly big problem – 57 percentexpect it to be a very or fairly big problem a year from now.
“While voters have some concern about the growth of the federal deficit, job creation is far and away their toppriority. In fact, by a margin of 53 to 42 percent, voters are more concerned about rising unemployment ratesthan the rising federal deficit.
“The survey results show that the voters are not persuaded by conservatives’ efforts either to blame theObama administration for the federal deficit or to convince them that efforts to stimulate the economy shouldbe abandoned in favor of spending cuts to reduce the deficit.
“By a margin of 73 to 24 percent, poll respondents agreed that: ‘The federal budget deficit is an importantproblem, but we need to deal with it in a way that allows us to invest in job creation, education, and energyindependence, because we cannot solve the deficit problem without getting people back to work and gettingour economy growing again.’
” ‘Voters understand that investing in job creation must necessarily come before the challenge of addressingthe federal deficit. These findings will help policy makers understand that they can do what they need to do tocreate a sound, jobs-based recovery without losing public support over the federal deficit,’ said LawrenceMishel, the president of EPI, which commissioned the poll.
” ‘And for those who have assumed that the deficit will trump all other concerns, it’s a wake-up call.’
“When asked who has been helped most so far by the government’s stimulus efforts, the majority say ‘largebanks’ (62%) or ‘Wall Street investment companies’ (54%) have benefited either a lot or a fair amount. Askedhow much ‘the average working person’ or ‘you and your family’ have benefited, approximately one out of 10(13% and 10%, respectively) say a lot or a fair amount.
“The vast majority of voters (81%) agree that the Obama administration still needs to do more to deal withunemployment and the loss of jobs. The survey also shows that voters trust the president more thancongressional Republicans, by a margin of 43 to 32 percent, to have the right economic policies.”
