Buried in an otherwise gloomy poll–and aren’t they all these day?–is some good news for President Barack Obama: More than half of Americans support the idea of a large-scale government-subsidized construction program to create job, Carrie Budoff Brown reports at Politico. Such a plan is expected to be the centerpiece of the president’s jobs speech scheduled for Thursday.
The Politico/George Washington University Battleground Poll finds 51 percent favor a jobs program, while only 21 percent oppose it. The rest are undecided.
On another economic topic, 53 percent of Americans say the Congressional “super-committee” on the debt and deficit should make taxes the top priority, either by raising taxes on corporation and the wealthy or by closing loopholes in the current tax code. Another 29 percent say the focus should be on cutting spending, and 11 percent favor reforming entitlements.