Today's New York Times/CBS poll has some alarming numbers on the economy, with pessimism at its highest level since early 2009 and disapproval of President Obama's economic performance at its highest level ever. One important part of the story behind these numbers is that, as Greg Sargent points out, voters do not see deficit reduction as being a net job creator:
At the same time, buried in the internals is a number that shows that the public doesn’t buy the argument that reining in the deficit will do anything to create jobs:
What effect do you think a major reduction in the annual federal budget deficit would have on the number of jobs in the U.S. -- would it create jobs, would it cost jobs, or would it have no effect on job creation in the U.S.?
Create more jobs 29
Cost jobs 29
No effect 27
So even as the economic concerns of voters mount, the debate in Washington is increasingly irrelevant to those concerns. Now, it's possible to overstate this. Obviously, there is a link between fiscal policy and economics. And polls also show people do have concerns about fiscal policy.
But the question isn't whether we should be talking about fiscal policy. The question is whether there should also be a national debate about job creation, and at least according to this poll, it seems obvious that there should be.