Missing From 2016 Race: More Urgency Over U.S. Budget Gaps

In almost every stump speech, Republican presidential candidate John Kasich mentions his six years on the House Budget Committee and his work to produce a budget surplus. He brings a national-debt clock to town halls. He talks about his responsible stewardship of Ohio’s finances as governor, too. And that’s the only state he’s won.

Americans don’t care about the federal budget the way they did just three years ago. According to the Pew Research Center’s annual survey of policy priorities, 56 percent of adults in the U.S. said in January that reducing the budget deficit was a "top priority." That share peaked at 72 percent in 2013. Though there is a partisan gap -- since Barack Obama began as president in 2009, Republicans have cared more than Democrats -- the downward trend is consistent across parties, ages and education levels.