American Public Losing Some Interest in Economic Issues

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton once coined the slightly over-cited phrase "It's the economy, stupid!! during his election campaign in 1992. While the American public thinks that the economy in general, jobs and the budget deficit are still important issues, the share of respondents who think these matters should be top of the list for President and Congress to sort out is in decline, according to surveys conducted by the Pew Research Center in January of each year

The authors of Pew's latest report state that this is due to "public’s improving economic outlook". Understandably, issues that are perceived to be going in to the right direction get less attention. The overall decline in priority for economic issues began well before incumbent President Donald Trump took office in 2017. From 2013 onwards, all three issues have taken a dip overall.