Stimulus:Furious with President Obama for making a deal with Republicans, Democrats have hit on a new reason for supporting economy-killing tax hikes: the deficit. This would be funny if it weren't so tragic.

A Christian Science Monitor/TIPP poll asked which countries or groups pose the greatest threat to the US. The responses suggest that Americans differentiate among threats 'realistically.'

Barack Obama vowed in 2008 to bring the country back into the international community, but Americans are starting to worry that it is instead once again becoming the "pitiful giant" it was in the 1970s.

Fiscal Policy: With just weeks to go before the biggest tax hike in U.S. history, President Obama and Republicans have agreed to a "framework" to extend the Bush tax cuts. The toughest sell will be Obama's own party.

LOS ANGELES (December 7, 2010) — The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index declined 0.9 points, or 1.9%, in December posting 45.8 vs. 46.7 in November. The index is 0.6 points below its 12-month average of 46.4 and 1.4 points above its reading of 44.4 in December 2007 when the economy entered into the recession, and 4.9 points below its all-time average of 50.7.

Politics: In his swan song to the Senate, Chris Dodd decried Washington's "intense partisan polarization" and called Congress "completely dysfunctional." Sorry, senator, but partisanship just might save this great nation.

LOS ANGELES (November 9, 2010) — The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index increased 0.3 points, or 0.6%, in November posting 46.7 vs. 46.4 in October.  The index is 0.2 points above its 12-month average of 46.5 and 2.3 points above its reading of 44.4 in December 2007 when the economy entered into the recession, and 4.0 points below its all-time average of 50.7.

LOS ANGELES (October 12, 2010) - The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index increased 1.1 points, or 2.4%, in October posting 46.4 vs. 45.3 in September. The index is 0.2 points below its 12-month average of 46.6 and 2.0 points above its reading of 44.4 in December 2007 when the economy entered into the recession, and 4.3 points below its all-time average of 50.7.

Fiscal Policy: Listening to the White House and Congress, you'd think Americans were keen to let the Bush-era tax cuts expire at the end of this year. Now, a new IBD/TIPP poll definitively lays that myth to rest.