When asked to say, without being prompted or shown a list, what “are the two most important issues for government to address,” more people (45%) mention healthcare than any other issue. However, many more people, in total, mention either the economy (32%) or employment or jobs (31%). No other issue comes close.

These are some of the results of The Harris Poll of 2,576 adults surveyed online between January 18 and 25, 2010 by Harris Interactive.

The only other issues to be mentioned as most important by more than five percentage points are government spending or the budget (7%), and terrorism (6%). Five percent each mention immigration and education.

Leaders’ ratings

This Harris Poll also measures the ratings of political leaders and parties in Washington just before the State of the Union speech. None of these changed significantly from December. A few points to note include:

- The public remains overwhelmingly critical of Congress (84% negative).

- Many more people give negative than positive ratings to both the Democrats in Congress (by 54% to 17%) and the Republicans in Congress (by 50% to 16%). Until a few months ago more people were critical of the Republicans than the Democrats.

- Majorities are not familiar with either Defense Secretary Robert Gates (53%) or Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (57%) and substantial numbers are not familiar with Vice-President Joe Biden (33%), and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (32%). And, in spite of her many years of high profile visibility, a remarkable 18% are not familiar with Hillary Clinton.