Tuesday's exit polls asked a series of policy-oriented questions. One of those questions asked voters to name their top priority for the next Congress from the following three options: (1) cut taxes; (2) reduce the deficit; and (3) increase spending to create jobs.
39% identified the deficit as their top priority and 19% named tax cuts. Republicans captured 72% and 64% of those voters respectively. I'd point out that Democrats actually have a better track record on managing deficits than Republicans, but given the emphasis of the GOP on federal debt I can understand those results.
But what I couldn't understand is how the GOP managed to capture 30% of the votes of the 37% of people who listed their top priority as increasing spending to create jobs. I mean, that is exactly what the stimulus was designed to do; perhaps it emphasized tax cuts too much and perhaps it spent too little, but that was done to win GOP support in the senate. Without Republicans, we'd have spent far more on job creation and they've made opposing the stimulus a cornerstone of their campaign.
So how in the world did they manage to win 30% of votes from people who want to see more federal spending?