With the country still suffering under an official unemployment above nine percent it should not  be surprising that Americans overwhelmingly rank jobs and the economy as the most important problem facing this country according to the newest New York Times/CBS News poll. In fact over seven times as many Americans rank jobs and the economy the top problem facing compared to the the national debt.

Most Important Problem Facing the Country
53% Economy and jobs
7 Budget deficit
4 Health care
4 War/Iraq/Afghanistan

Congress is in a full blown austerity mode right now and any deal that comes out of these negotiations is likely going to be really bad news for regular people. That is why I suspect any deal will just happen to be reached at the last minute, so Congress will “need” to quickly pass the bill with effectively no public debate or time for scrutiny.