1 1 <p><a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/121262/Sharp-Differences-Partisan-Views-Economic-Problems.aspx?CSTS=alert">A Gallup poll reveals that when it comes to perceptions about the economy and the current economic crisis, sharp partisan differences prevail</a>: "Republicans and Democrats view economic issues facing the country today from substantially different perspectives. Republicans are most likely to be worried about the increasing federal deficit, increasing federal income taxes, and problems state governments have in funding their budgets, while Democrats are most worried about the rising unemployment rate, Americans without health care insurance, and the increasing cost of health care. These results underscore the political tensions that have arisen as the Obama administration and Congress wrestle with how to fix the country's economic problems, while at the same time dealing with the longer-term impact of those efforts. Taken as a whole, Republicans are more concerned than Democrats about the impact of increased federal and state spending, and government regulation of business, while Democrats are more concerned about the societal problems that the increased spending and regulation are designed to address."</p> <p>Here's a sampling of the top priorities by party affiliation: <br /></p> <p align="center"><img src="http://sas-origin.onstreammedia.com/origin/gallupinc/GallupSpaces/Production/Cms/POLL/ewmepd0rx0ufklz7qhnnzw.gif" border="0" alt="ewmepd0rx0ufklz7qhnnzw" width="564" height="374" /></p> 2009-06-28T11:29:39-04:00 983 false true 2009-07-01T09:35:00-04:00 2009-07-01T09:35:00-04:00