Older Americans Pick Iraq and Immigration as Top Issues Facing U.S.

January 24, 2007 – As is usually the case, senior citizens do not agree with younger adults on many of the issues that should be addressed in the United States and that they wanted President Bush to address in his State of the Union speech, according to a Harris Poll taken in mid-January. "Mature" Americans (age 62 and over) tended to pick "war in Iraq" and "improving immigration policy" when asked to choose two issues from a prepared list that they thought President Bush should address.

Among all adults, however, the immigration issue was not nearly important and they tended to add "strengthening the economy" as their second choice. The Iraq war was, or course, everyone's first choice.

	Related Stories
	Senior Citizens Hear Little on Social Security or Medicare in State of Union 'Senior citizens' never mentioned and 'elderly' mentioned once January 24, 2007 – Although President Bush spoke for nearly an hour in delivering the State of the Union address last night, the entitlement programs, which primarily serve America's 37 million senior citizens, was mentioned in only one paragraph. Read more... Read more on Politics for Senior Citizens

Immigration was picked as a top issue by 35% of the oldest group, considerably more often than any other age group. The closest were the baby boomers but at only 24%.

Strengthening the economy was low on the agenda for the matures, who rated it 11 percentage points lower than the combined choice of all adults.

Strengthening Social Security, which many consider a senior citizen hot button, was picked by 20% the older adults, but was much more important to baby boomers – 26%.

"Making prescription drugs affordable" was picked y 18% of the matures, more than all other age groups. In the combined choice of all adults it was chosen by 15%.

The poll found less than one-third (31%) of U.S. adults rate the current state of the country as "good," while 69 percent believe it is "poor." One of the most interesting findings of this poll was the gender gap in opinions about the state of the nation. Men are more likely to have a favorable perspective, with 37% believing the current state of the country is "good," compared to only 26% of women.

As one might expect, a partisan difference exists: only 10 percent of Democrats and 27 percent of Independents believe the state of the country is "good." Interestingly, Republicans are not overwhelmingly pleased with things either, as just over half (57%) of them say the state of the country is "good."

How would you rate the current state of the country?"
	Total	Gender		Party ID
	Total	Men	Women	Republican	Democrat	Independent
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Good (NET)	31	37	26	57	10	27
Excellent	7	10	5	18	1	4
Good	24	27	21	40	9	23
Poor (NET)	69	63	74	43	90	73
Fair	45	41	48	36	53	47
Poor	24	22	25	7	37	26

Picking the top two issues:

	Total	Party ID			Generation				Differences
	Total	Republican	Democrat	Independent	Echo Boomers (18 to 30)	Gen X (31 to 42)	Baby Boomers (43 to 61)	Matures (62 and over)	Diff Matures/ All	Diff Matures/ Boomers
	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%	%
The war in Iraq	51	48	59	49	56	55	47	48	-3	1
Strengthening the economy	33	32	35	32	39	38	34	22	-11	-12
The war on terrorism	29	42	19	23	32	26	26	32	3	6
Improving immigration policy	25	32	17	28	19	21	24	35	10	11
Strengthening Social Security	20	17	25	17	15	18	26	20	0	-6
Making prescription drugs affordable	15	8	18	17	11	13	16	18	3	2
Making taxes fairer	14	12	11	17	14	14	15	13	-1	-2
Rebuilding the Gulf Coast	10	4	13	14	9	12	9	9	-1	0

One reason for the general state of disquiet in the country may be that there is a negative perception of the state on many specific issues. More than half (58%) of adults believe that the war on terrorism is going poorly, while six in 10 (60%) believe the same about the strengthening of the economy -- and these are the two things perceived to be going the best on our list. Almost two-thirds (65%) of adults believe rebuilding the Gulf Coast is going poorly, while 72 percent say the same of making prescription drugs affordable and 73 percent say this about making taxes more fair.

At the very bottom of the list are the war in Iraq (78% say it is going poorly), strengthening Social Security (80% say it is going poorly) and improving immigration policy (81% say it is going poorly).

Overall, there is not a great deal of change in perceptions from 2006, with one major exception. In 2006, 30 percent of adults said the war in Iraq was going excellent or pretty good. This year, that number is down to just 19 percent.

Editor's Notes:

This Harris Poll was conducted online within the United States between January 11 and 17, 2007, among 2,337 adults (aged 18 and over). Figures for age, sex, race, education, region and household income were weighted where necessary to bring them into line with their actual proportions in the population. Propensity score weighting was also used to adjust for respondents' propensity to be online.

Harris Interactive is the 12th largest and fastest-growing market research firm in the world. The company provides research-driven insights and strategic advice to help its clients make more confident decisions which lead to measurable and enduring improvements in performance. Harris Interactive is widely known for The Harris Poll, one of the longest running, independent opinion polls and for pioneering online market research methods. More information about Harris Interactive may be obtained at http://www.harrisinteractive.com/.

To become a member of the Harris Poll Online and be invited to participate in online surveys, register at http://go.hpolsurveys.com/HarrisPoll.

Click to More Senior News on the Front Page

Published by New Tech Media - www.NewTechMedia.com

Other New Tech Media sites include CaroleSutherland.com, BethJanicek.com, www.DeweySquare.com, SASeniors.com, DrugDanger.com, etc.

E-mail - editor@SeniorJournal.com