Our top political priorities right now:
Bottom Line: Given the angst by some regarding the lack of enacted policy thus far in the early weeks of the Trump administration, I wanted to get a temperature check on our current priorities. The most recent accredited data I found came from the AP/NORC polling in late March. The first takeaway that jumped out at me was how many different policy priorities a majority of us are desirous of seeing enacted. The following categories all polled above 50% (as being at least very important):
- Deficit: 57%
- Foreign Policy: 59%
- SCOTUS: 60%
- Immigration: 60%
- Taxes: 70%
- Healthcare: 86%
- Economic policy: 87%
So in terms of the average American's agenda, substantive action (aside from executive orders), has been taken on one of the top seven priorities - with the confirmation of Neil Gorsuch as a Supreme Court Justice. That clearly does matter to the average American but it tied for just the 4th most important priority. Based on this data it's clear that it's helpful to the Trump administration but it still won't take the place of tax reform and related reforms that might boost the economy and healthcare reform.
On one hand you could rationalize that on day 82 of the Trump administration we're only a little more than 5% of the way through the President's four year term and 14% of our top priorities have been addressed. On the other hand we know that politics doesn't quite work that way and the healthcare issues and economic desires are here and now concerns that aren't lessening in importance. It's clear that not acting meaningfully on taxes/economic measures and healthcare reform would not be acceptable to the overwhelming majority of Americans. We'll see if Paul Ryan & Co. have their act together when they return in a week and a half.