President Obama and other administration officials have been road-testing several possible themes and proposals that are likely to come up in his State of the Union speech today. Here�s a look at public opinion on the issues that Obama and Republicans say they will push in the coming year, as well as Americans� views of their leaders and how well (or not) they think things are going in the country.
1)�What�s most important: Domestic issues.�Despite a year of turmoil and new threats abroad, Americans still overwhelmingly say it is more important for Obama to�focus on domestic policy�than foreign policy, although by a smaller margin than previous years. The public has put the priority on domestic matters each year during�Obama�s presidency. This year, 67% hold that view, lower than previous years, when it was as high as eight-in-ten or more. One-in-five Americans want Obama to focus more on foreign policy; that figure had been in single digits the previous three years.
2)�Terrorism:�For the first time in five years, as many Americans�cite defending the U.S. against terrorism�(76%) as a top policy priority as say that about strengthening the nation�s economy (75%). There has been little change from previous years in the public�sworries about an imminent threat�and�about seven-in-ten (72%) Americans say thegovernment is doing very or fairly well�in reducing the threat of terrorism.
3)�Economy: Since the end of the recession, the share of Americans who cited theeconomy and the jobs situation�as a top priority for Obama and Congress has declined. Three-quarters of Americans say strengthening the economy should be a top priority, down 11 points from 2013.�Perhaps more important, almost twice as many expect the economy to be better than worse a year from now (31% vs. 17%). But just 16% of Americans�regard the economic recovery�so far as a strong one. See our�key data fact sheetfor more background on economic issues.
4)�Immigration:�Republicans, now in charge of both houses of Congress, have already begun an effort to�roll back�Obama�s�executive actions�expanding the number of unauthorized�immigrants permitted to work and stay in the country. Americans are divided over Obama�s move with half disapproving of the actions and 46% in support. It�s a big partisan issue: About�eight-in-ten Republicans (82%) disapprove of Obama�s executive actions and about seven-in-ten Democrats (71%) approve. See our�key data fact sheet�for background on public opinion on other immigration issues, including our latest estimate of the unauthorized immigrant population.
5)�Cybersecurity and privacy:�Obama plans to�announce initiatives�to enhance cybsersecurity for businesses and the government, as well as safeguards against identity theft and intrusions into peoples� privacy.�This comes at a time when our surveys show the public has little confidence in the security of their everyday communications.�Fully 91% of adults agree that �consumers have lost control over how personal information is collected and used by companies.� Just 2% of American adults view social media sites as �very secure,� while 14% feel �somewhat secure� sharing sensitive information on social media. See our�fact sheet on cybersecurity and privacy�for more background on these issues.
6) Community colleges: Obama recently�unveiled an expensive plan to providefree�community college education�for millions of Americans. The proposal�could have a significant impact on Hispanics.�Hispanics make up a�growing share�of the nation�s nearly 7 million community college students. In 2013, 22% of all enrolled public two-year college students were Hispanics � a greater share than their makeup of all students � and that figure has risen from 14% in 2000. The share of black students in public community colleges increased at a much lower rate over the same time period, from 12% to 15%, while the share of white and Asian/Pacific Islander students declined.
7)�Energy and environment:�There are two issues in particular this year on which Obama and Republicans are facing off: building of the�Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry crude oil from�Canada tar sands to U.S. Gulf ports, and Obama�s efforts to cut emissions from power plants. Americans favor building the pipeline by nearly two-to-one (59% to 31%), although that margin has slipped somewhat since March 2013. Republicans are heavily in favor, while Democrats are more divided. When it comes to the Obama administration�s�proposal to cut power plant emissions, the public favors stricter limits by a 64% to 31% margin. For more public opinion on these and other issues, see our�energy and environment fact sheet.
8)�Deficit:�The percentage of Americans who say that reducing the budget deficit should be a top priority for the president and Congress rose 19 points between 2009 and 2013, but�has fallen eight points�over the past two years, to 64%.�Historically, the party holding the White House tends to place less importance on reducing the deficit compared with the party out of power. That remains the case today, with 72% of Republicans and 55% of Democrats rating deficit reduction as a top policy priority, although the number of Republicans holding this view is down 12 points since 2013.
9)�Obama:�About as many Americans approve (47%) of�Obama�s overall job performance�as disapprove (48%), compared with�the 55% who gave him positive marks shortly after his election in 2012.�Nearly four-in-ten (38%) say Obama�s economic policies since taking office�have made economic conditions better, while 28% say they have made the economy worse; 30% think they have not had much of an effect. In the international arena, there has been a sharp increase since 2012 in the share of Americans who say�Obama�s approach to foreign policy�and national security issues is �not tough enough.� More than half (55%) of Americans currently regard him as not tough enough, with 89% of Republicans holding that view compared with�35% of Democrats.
10)�Republicans:�The�Republican Party is seen favorably�by 41% of Americans and unfavorably by 53%. (By comparison, the public is divided about the Democrats with 46% having positive views of the party and 48% having negative ones.) Overall, 49% of the public�disapproves of Republican congressional leaders� policies�and plans for the future; slightly fewer (40%) approve.
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